Parents of shooting suspect in custody — both plead not guilty

The parents of a Michigan teenager who police say fatally shot four classmates in the halls of Oxford High School in suburban Detroit were arrested early Saturday after being the subject of an intense manhunt.

The teenager’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were taken into custody in a commercial building in Detroit after police received a tip that led them to the location, officials said. The arrests came a day after they were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths, failed to show up for their arraignment and apparently fled.

“We have in fact taken them into custody without incident,” James White, Detroit’s police chief, said at a news conference.

Video surveillance showed one of the Crumbleys walking inside the building, White said. He added that they appeared to be “hiding” inside one of the rooms in the building. “This isn’t indicative of turning themselves in, hiding in a warehouse,” White said.

“They did not resist” when officers moved in to arrest them, White said, describing the couple as “distressed.”

White said the couple “did not break in” to the building but were let inside by someone. The person who aided them, he said, is being investigated by police and “could be facing charges.”

The couple were arraigned later Saturday, when they both pleaded not guilty to all four charges of involuntary manslaughter. The judge set bond at $500,000 for each of the parents.

The couple were charged in the students’ deaths after officials said their son, Ethan Crumbley, 15, carried out the shootings Tuesday using a handgun his parents had bought for him.

Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor, said the Crumbleys were culpable because they had allowed their son access to a handgun while ignoring glaring warnings that he was on the brink of violence.

Law enforcement officials said the parents had gone missing Friday afternoon, prompting a manhunt that involved the county’s fugitiveapprehension team, FBI agents and U.S. marshals. It drew in Detroit police when officials received the tip that led them to the area where Saturday’s arrest took place, near the Detroit River.

At the arraignment, the couple’s defense lawyers maintained that the couple were not fleeing. The couple, defense lawyer Shannon Smith said, were “absolutely going to turn themselves in,” and attributed the delay to miscommunication with the prosecutor’s office. The lawyers also said that the prosecutor’s statement that the gun was left unlocked in the Crumbley home was not true.

The shooting killed Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17.