Prosecutor Blames Mother For 4 Deaths In Michigan School Shooting

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A school shooting that killed four students in Michigan could have been prevented if the mother of the armed teen had removed him after seeing his violent drawings that same day, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday in an uncommon trial about parental responsibility.

Jennifer Crumbley is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 30, 2021, attack at Oxford High School. Prosecutors say she and husband James Crumbley were grossly negligent and that their son’s actions were foreseeable.

Jennifer Crumbley was aware of Ethan Crumbley’s deteriorating mental health and social isolation and knew that a gun drawn on a math assignment resembled the one that he had used with her at a shooting range, assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said.

“This was a purchase celebrated by Jennifer on Instagram: ‘Mom and son day testing out his new X-mas present,’” Keast said, quoting a social media post.

Instead of taking the boy home from school after seeing the drawing, Jennifer and husband James Crumbley left a meeting after 11 minutes and allowed him to stay. He soon killed four students and wounded several others. No one had checked his backpack for a gun.

The case against Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, who will stand trial in March, marks the first time that a parent has been charged in a mass shooting at a U.S. school.

“Even though she didn’t pull the trigger, she’s responsible for those deaths,” Keast said in his opening statement.

Keast focused on two key themes: access to a gun at the Crumbley home and the school meeting on the day of the shooting, when a teacher was alarmed by the teen’s drawing of blood and a gun and the phrase, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”

“The two people in the world that had all of