Ethan Chumley
McDonald said overall she approved charging Crumbley with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony for Crumbley.
There’s “a mountain of digital evidence,” McDonald said, including social media and videotape, and her office is confident that the shootings were “absolutely premeditated.”
“This is unspeakable,” she told reporters during a Wednesday afternoon briefing. “We send our kids to school and we think that they’re going to be safe.”
The terrorism charge, she added, was warranted not just for those who lost their lives but for the students and families forever traumatized by the rampage.
“What about all the children who ran, screaming, hiding under desks? What about all the children at home right now who can’t eat and can’t sleep and can’t imagine a world where they could ever step foot back in that school,” McDonald said after announcing the charges. “Those are victims too and so are their families and so is the community. The charge of terrorism reflects that.”
The prosecutor said she’d only say the name of the suspect once Wednesday, adding “we want to keep our focus on the victims of this horrific tragedy.”
Breaking News: Three people were killed in a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, north of Detroit, the authorities said. The dead were all believed to be students, officials said, and a 15-year-old student has been taken into custody. https://t.co/Xe3t4JTJWr
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 30, 2021
The four students killed were Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17.
McDonald noted Juliana, a volleyball player and basketball player, was characterized by her father as “one of the happiest and most joyful kids.”
Baldwin was a talented artist and big sister, Myre was a junior football player and honor student, and Shilling was a co-captain of the bowling team and a golfer, she said.
McDonald also asked for prayers for those still fighting to recover from the attack. She said charging Crumbley as an adult is “necessary” because of the seriousness of the alleged crimes to “achieve justice and protect the public.”
The suspect will be arraigned later Wednesday afternoon, she said.
In the span of five minutes on Tuesday, authorities said “15 to 20” shots were fired from a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun inside the school.
Crumbley was arrested. But he invoked his right to silence, as did his parents, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
Bouchard said Wednesday that Crumbley can be seen on video footage reviewed by investigators leaving a school bathroom armed and walking down a school hallway where he began shooting at students and a teacher at close range randomly.
#breakingnews Oxford High School on lockdown after school shooting reported with multiple victims. pic.twitter.com/ARDxWYkhdq
— Macomb County Scanner (@Macomb_Scanner) November 30, 2021
The teen is jailed at Oakland County Children’s Village. Authorities executed a search warrant at the teen’s home on Tuesday evening.
Bouchard said late Tuesday that the teen used a pistol his father purchased on Black Friday, Nov. 26, in the attack.
McDonald said Wednesday that Crumbley’s parents could also face charges in the shooting.
Michigan provides criminal liability for a parent of any child under age 18 whose child violates a state firearm-related law while on school property or in a school vehicle, if the parent had custody of the child and knew the child would commit the violation or acted to further the violation, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Related Story: Ethan Crumbley, his parents had school meeting over ‘behavior’ just hours before attack
In the February 2000 shooting death of six-year-old Kayla Rolland in a Flint area elementary school, the uncle of the six-year-old boy shooter — Jamelle James — pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter after he left the pistol used in the shooting inside a shoebox in his bedroom. James spent more than two years in prison before he was released on probation.
McDonald declined to comment on whether Crumbley or his parents have any prior criminal record.
“Shortly we will confirm whether or not there will be further charges,” she said during a news conference. “However, we know that owning a gun means securing it properly and locking it and keeping the ammunition separate and not allowing access to other individuals, particularly minors. We know that and we have to hold individuals accountable who don’t do that.”
Important evidence is still being gathered and investigators in her office will pour through the facts and “leave no stone unturned” on “how and why this happened,” she said.
McDonald would not elaborate on whether those injured were targeted by Crumbley, but stressed that the suspect is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, “which requires us to prove premeditation.”
The prosecutor also put out a call to end gun violence in schools in the country and Oakland County and that she’s hoping to move the needle on appropriate gun control legislation.
“We have watched school shootings unfold in this country for far too long,” McDonald said. “Sadly, the national spotlight is shining today on our community.
“It’s my fervent hope that this will be the last time that we experience an incident happen like this in Oakland County or anywhere,” she said.
___
(c)2021 The Detroit News
Visit The Detroit News at www.detnews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
The Liberal Democrats have forced all schools not to teach the love of Jesus Christ, pray or in any way taught to Love each other, except in the immoral sexually perverted LGBTQ way.
Our schools and colleges are brainwashing our young people to hate anything and anyone that does not bow down to the Democrat Party’s philosophy. This taught Hate sometimes manifests itself in the desire of young males to kill all disbelievers in the demonic Democrat Party’s philosophy .
To fully advance the Demonic, Lying Socialist Democrat Party’s destructive agendas are; by dividing our citizens with hate and promote; rioting, burning, looting, open borders, gun control, radical feminism, abortion-on-demand, the LGBTQ lifestyle, unfettered sexual identity, transgender “gay marriage” and the like, the pagan Liberal left Democrats must do away with our Constitution, GOD, common sense, morality, Christian values and free religious exercise altogether.
Under the guise of “anti-discrimination.”
SO WhAT this kid did, is “TERRORISM”, but that black guy, WHO WILLFULLY TARGETED WHITES, and zig zagged while driving his 2 ton SUV as a weapon, STILL has yet to even be looked at as ‘possible domestic terror’…
GO FIGURE.
PART 1—“The prosecutor also put out a call to end gun violence in schools in the country and Oakland County and that she’s hoping to move the needle on appropriate gun control legislation.” Right on cue—and it detracts from what should be the focus of the investigation.
As with all situations like this, the Media and Liberal politicians have to rush to capitalize on fear and emotion, resulting in clouded judgment. The gun did not go berserk and injure and kill of its own accord. The gun was in the hands of someone who planned and intended to inflict violence and hurt—it was his personal voluntary decision to pull the trigger multiple times in order to accomplish that. The gun is incapable, and would not have, caused any of this on its own, so this farce of hollering for more gun control every time something like this happens has no legitimate nor constructive basis.
Ethan Crumbley, 15 years old, just flushed his life down the toilet—savagely ended four other lives—and immeasurably damaged countless others. It wasn’t because he had access to a gun—it wasn’t because he held it in his hand—it was because of what he decided to do with it—and what a tragic decision that has adversely affected so many people.
MORE and more, the conspiracy theorists in me, KEEPS WONDERING< HOW IS IT that all of these "Nutters", keeps doing these school shootings, JUST WHEN THE LEFT really needs to 'stoke up public furor, to push MORE ANTI GUN LAWS"..
They keep happening, TO COINCIDENTALLY< for it to be random.
PART 2—Our schools have become propaganda centers spewing out Socialist and Communist ideologies. Our politicians, many of whom are Liberal, are pushing destructive policies and even encouraging and supporting violence especially among radical protest groups. Police departments are being demonized. Children are not being taught the values and principles—the social skills—that they should be taught. As to what degree family and friends interaction played into this, it is not known.
My wish is that the root cause of this type of behavior would be addressed and cut out this gun control nonsense. Parading the drama is not going to ever have any meaningful impact on situations like this. The physical and emotional scars that so many now have to deal with is tremendous. My prayers go out to them.
THE ROOT cause imo, is We do not KEEP MENTAL nutters locked the hell up in asylums, where they USED TO BE….
How did all this come about. a certain segment of society has created this monster, the media has exploited and glorified it, politicians have pandered to it. Schools no longer teach any sense of morality or responsibility, but they do teach resentment of authority and erroneous constructs of race, sex, gender, ethnicity, etc., leaving those without a strong sense of family and or obligation to define their own sense of morality; the result being confused individual without a sense of direction committing such acts of antisocial violence.