Parents on the run. The parents of the teenager who opened fire at a high school in the north of the United States are wanted by police Friday, December 3, after being charged with manslaughter for allowing their son to use a weapon with which he killed four students. James and Jennifer Crumbley “cannot escape their responsibilities in this tragedy, said Michael Bouchard, the Sheriff of Oakland County, Michigan. Our fugitive arrest team, the FBI and the US Marshals service are looking for them and we intend to take them into custody soon. “.
Their son, Ethan Crumbley, 15, killed four students and injured six others as well as a teacher on Tuesday in the grounds of Oxford high school in an act of cold blood that caused trauma in the small town north of Detroit. He “walked into high school and pulled the trigger” corn “other people contributed to this event and I intend to hold them to account”County Attorney Karen McDonald said as she announced the lawsuits against the parents.
The gunman was charged with “terrorist act” and “assassinations”, and faces life imprisonment because he is being prosecuted as an adult. He pleads not guilty but has chosen to remain silent. He is being held in solitary confinement in the county jail in Pontiac. Shootings remain a recurring scourge in the United States, claiming many victims in a country where the right to own guns is constitutionally guaranteed. But lawsuits against relatives of their perpetrators are extremely rare.
James Crumbley had bought the previous Friday, the day of the big “Black Friday” promotions, a Sig Sauer semi-automatic pistol as an early Christmas present for his son. After the purchase, the teenager posted images of the weapon on social media, calling it “beauty”. According to the police, he had recorded a video the day before the shooting on his cell phone where he announced his intention to use his weapon in high school, without broadcasting it on the internet.
The next morning, Ethan Crumbley was summoned with his parents by the school administration, for drawings of a weapon and a bloody body accompanied by a smiling emoticon, as well as messages referring to death: “Help me, my life is useless, the world is dead, blood everywhere”. “To think that a parent could read these words knowing that their son had access to a lethal weapon he had given him is incomprehensible, and I think it is a crime.”, said the prosecutor.
She also blames the parents for not asking their son where his gun was, which was in his backpack, and for refusing to bring the boy home. Two hours after the meeting, he came out of the bathroom, gun in hand, methodically progressing through the halls of the school, shooting at high school students and at the doors of the classrooms where the students had barricaded themselves. He fired at least 30 bullets. According to the police, he had aimed at random, without choosing previously identified victims.