Court told Ethan Crumbley’s father missed the chance to stop school shooting

The father of a school shooter who killed four students in Michigan in 2021 had missed an “incredible opportunity” to prevent the tragedy, prosecutors have told a trial.

“This case isn’t about bad parenting — it’s not illegal to be a bad parent. It’s not kids doing kid things,” assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said. “We’re talking about preventable mass murder.”

James Crumbley is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each teenager killed by Ethan Crumbley at Oxford High School. Jennifer Crumbley was found guilty of the same charges last month.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are the first US parents to be charged with having criminal responsibility for a mass school shooting committed by a child.

Keast emphasised a series of key points for the jury. He noted that James Crumbley, accompanied by his son, bought a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun four days before the shooting.

The father never told school staff about the purchase -- or a trip to a shooting range that same weekend -- when he and his wife were summoned to discuss a disturbing drawing on Ethan’s maths assignment on the day of the shooting.

There was a gun on the paper that looked similar to the Sig Sauer, blood drops and a bullet, accompanied by the phrases: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”

“Emergency,” Jennifer Crumbley messaged her husband before the meeting.

“My god,” he responded when he saw the drawing.

But the Crumbleys didn’t take Ethan home, and the school, concerned that he might be suicidal, didn’t demand it. No one checked the boy’s backpack for a gun, however, and the nine-minute shooting happened that afternoon.

James Crumbley is not accused of knowing what his 15-year-old son had planned for his school. But he’s accused of being grossly negligent by not securing the weapon.

“This nightmare -- these murders -- were preventable by him, foreseeable by him,” Keast said.

Defense attorney Mariell Lehman told jurors that James Crumbly was not aware his son had access to the firearm or that he was a danger.

Prosecutors allege that, in addition to failing to secure the gun, the Crumbleys ignored their son’s pleas for help for mental distress. Ethan told a friend that James Crumbley’s response was to tell the boy to “suck it up,” according to text messages.

“I am mentally and physically dying,” Ethan told the friend in April 2021.

Ethan, now 17, is serving a life prison sentence for murder and terrorism.

Jennifer Crumbley, 45, is scheduled to return to court for her sentence on April 9. Her minimum prison term could be as high as 10 years.