HS gunman ‘red flags’
‘Disturbing’ acts before slays
Two Michigan school teachers raised red flags about accused school-massacre gunman Ethan Crumbley’s troubling behavior — while prosecutors on Thursday took aim at his parents, calling their conduct “far beyond negligence.”
The troubled teen was first reprimanded at Oxford HS Monday after “a teacher in the classroom where he was a student saw and heard something that she felt was disturbing in terms of his behavior,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told CNN’s “New Day.”
“They had a counseling session about it with school officials and a phone call was left with the parents,” Bouchard said.
“The day of the shooting, a different teacher in a different classroom saw some behavior that they felt was concerning and they brought the child down to an office, had a meeting with school officials, called in the parents,” the sheriff said.
“And ultimately it was determined that he could go back into class.”
Bouchard said that the decision to do so, just hours before the shooting, “will all be part of the investigation in terms of what they thought and why they thought that was the right step.”
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, asked whether the school had any culpability, told WJR radio that she “just can’t get to a space right now to blame anybody who worked at that school.”
“Should there have been different decisions made? Probably they will come to that conclusion,” she said. “Again, I have not seen anything that would make me think that there’s criminal culpability.”
McDonald said her office is still considering criminal charges against Crumbley’s parents, who bought him the 9mm handgun he allegedly used in the attack and later counseled him not to speak to cops.
“All I can say at this point is those actions on mom and dad’s behalf go far beyond negligence,” McDonald told WJR.
“We obviously are prosecuting the shooter to the fullest extent,” she said. “There are other individuals who should be held accountable.”
“The parents were the only individuals in the position to know the access to weapons,” the prosecutor said, adding that the gun “seems to have been just freely available to that individual.”
Authorities said both parents were summoned to the school this week — including just hours before the shootings — after two teachers raised alarms about the 15-year-old’s “disturbing” and “concerning” behavior at the school.
Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Crumbley with four counts of first-degree murder, terrorism and assault with intent to murder and have not ruled out additional charges.
Meanwhile, a new report Thursday revealed that Crumbley’s mother wrote an open letter to Donald Trump after the 2016 presidential election praising his support for gun rights.
“As a female and a Realtor, thank you for allowing my right to bear arms,” Jennifer Crumbley wrote in a blog post, the Daily Beast reported.
“Allowing me to be protected if I show a home to someone with bad intentions,” she wrote.
Bouchard said Crumbley did not enter classrooms or attempt to enter any during the deadly rampage.