(Washington) The 15-year-old who sowed death at his school in the northern United States on Tuesday was “ruthless”, showing “blood-curdling” determination, the sheriff in charge described on Wednesday. to investigate this new gun tragedy in the United States.
“He would shoot people at point blank range, often aiming at the head or the chest,” said Michael Bouchard. The death toll, which worsened on Wednesday, rose to four dead and seven gunshot wounds, almost all between the ages of 14 and 17.
Ethan Crumbley, arrested on the spot, could spend the rest of his days in jail as he is being prosecuted as if he was of legal age, local prosecutor Karen McDonald has announced.
She referred to a “mountain of evidence online, on video or on social networks” showing that it was not “just an impulsive act”, but a “totally premeditated” act.
Police recovered from his cell phone a video recorded on Monday, in which he announced his intention to shoot students the next day, a plan he had also recorded in a diary found in his backpack.
Ethan Crumbley appeared in court on Wednesday and was charged with “first degree murder” and “act of terrorism”.
PHOTO PAUL SANCYA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Oakland County Sheriff’s Office vehicle outside the Oxford, Mich., High school parking lot on Wednesday.
Trauma
His motives remain a mystery, as he has not explained himself since his arrest and has chosen to remain silent during his appearance. He pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.
The shooting, perpetrated in a school in Oxford, deeply shocked this small town in the state of Michigan, north of the metropolis of Detroit.
Many students took part in a vigil of meditation on Tuesday evening.
The shooter, carrying a Sig Sauer caliber 9mm semi-automatic pistol, bought four days earlier by his father, opened fire shortly before 1 p.m. local time, methodically progressing through the school and notably shooting at the classroom doors where the students were barricaded. He fired at least 30 bullets.
“He obviously came to kill people,” Sheriff Bouchard summed up on CNN.
The deceased teenagers are two girls aged 14 and 17 and two boys aged 16 and 17. Three young victims were still hospitalized Wednesday, including a 14-year-old girl in critical condition. Three other students and a 47-year-old teacher were able to return home.
Sheriff Bouchard estimated Wednesday that the shooter had fired at random, without choosing previously identified victims.
“Worrisome behavior”
Authorities plan to prosecute the shooter’s parents for giving him access to the gun, Karen McDonald said.
In addition to the pistol used in the attack, purchased on Friday on the occasion of the major promotions of the Black friday, guns were seized from the family home.
Ethan Crumbley previously trained with the gun, posting photos of the gun and the targets he aimed on social media.
He would have brought the gun without being worried. The Oxford school does not have a metal detector gantry, as is often seen in the United States.
The sheriff denied that his services were aware of threats against the school and the establishment had not received a report that the student had been the victim of harassment.
He has no criminal record, but had been summoned two days in a row, Monday and Tuesday, by school officials for “worrying behavior,” said Michael Bouchard.
Her parents were attending the second meeting on Tuesday morning. A few hours later, he came out of the bathroom, pistol in hand, and walked the halls, as the terrified students hid in the classrooms.
“We know that he tried to enter the rooms, that he fired on the doors of several of them”, explained Sheriff Bouchard.
Placed in a center for juvenile delinquents, Ethan Crumbley is subject to particularly strict surveillance, the authorities fearing that he is waiting for his life.