Outside review sought in fatal school rampage
PONTIAC, Mich. — An independent party will investigate events at Oxford High School that occurred before a school shooting that left four students dead and six other students and a teacher wounded, the Michigan district’s superintendent said.
Oxford Community Schools Superintendent Tim Throne said in a statement that he called for the outside review because parents have asked questions about “the school’s version of events leading up to the shooting.”
“It’s critically important to the victims, our staff and our entire community that a full and transparent accounting be made,” Throne said.
On Sunday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel offered her department’s services to conduct the review.
Throne’s comments came after Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald described numerous warning signs from the student charged in the shooting: His search for gun ammunition on a cell phone, and a drawing that showed a bullet with the words “blood everywhere” above a person who appears to have been shot along with “my life is useless” and “the world is dead.”
“Of course, he shouldn’t have gone back to that classroom . ... I believe that is a universal position,” McDonald said. Asked if school officials may potentially be charged, she said: “The investigation’s ongoing.”
On Tuesday at the school, roughly 30 miles north of Detroit, the student was sent back to the classroom after a school meeting with his parents. Three hours later the shooting occurred.
“The school should have been responsible to relay that to the sheriff ’s office. It looks like this could have been prevented,” said Robert Jordan, founder and director of St. Louis-based Protecting Our Students. “People died because of those mistakes.”
The suspect in the shooting, Ethan Crumbley, 15, is now charged as an adult with murder, terrorism and other crimes. On Friday, prosecutors charged his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter. They pleaded not guilty Saturday.
The pistol used in the shooting was bought at a local gun shop on Black Friday by James Crumbley as an early Christmas present for his son, authorities said.