James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the teen charged in the Oxford High School shooting were located and arrested early Saturday in Detroit, a little more than two hours after a citizen saw their vehicle and called police.
Authorities had been searching for the Crumbleys since about noon Friday after they were charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths at the high school in northern suburban Detroit. Their son, Ethan Crumbley, is charged with being the gunman in the shootings.
The Crumbley parents did not show for their arraignment Friday afternoon in Rochester Hills. The U.S. Marshals Service offered a reward for information leading to their arrests.
Officers searched through a building in the 1100 block of Bellevue near E. Lafayette. Police in SWAT gear could be seen outside the building about 12:45 a.m. as other officers checked the area, combing nearby properties with flashlights.
The investigation of the shootings and the search for the Crumbleys was led by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. Undersheriff Mike McCabe said the vehicle was found around 11:30 p.m. Friday.
“The owner of the building arrived and saw the car in the back parking lot, knew it didn’t belong there, went to investigate,” McCabe told the Free Press.
The building’s owner immediately recognized the car from information put out by law enforcement, checked the license plate, which matched, and called 911.
“There was a woman nearby sitting near the car smoking a cigarette,” McCabe said, adding that she walked away.
As of 1:10 a.m., police were stopping passers-by, shining lights and requesting information about whether people had seen anything
By about 1:45 a.m., the Crumbleys were under arrest.
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Original story is below:
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The parents of a teen accused of killing four students at a Michigan high school were charged with involuntary manslaughter Friday as a prosecutor described chilling moments that day when a teacher found a drawing of a gun, a person bleeding and the words “help me” at the boy’s desk.
Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said the parents committed “egregious” acts, including buying a gun and making it available to Ethan Crumbley and failing to intervene when they were summoned to the school Tuesday and confronted with the drawing.
School officials told James and Jennifer Crumbley to get their 15-year-old into counseling, McDonald said.
The prosecutor outlines the reasons behind her decision to charge James and Jennifer Crumbley. She offers detail in the video that is not in the text of this story.
He returned to class and later emerged from a bathroom with a gun, firing at students in the hallway, according to police.
Jennifer Crumbley texted her son after the shooting, saying, “Ethan, don’t do it,” McDonald said.
“These charges are intended to hold the individuals who contributed to this tragedy accountable and also send the message that gun owners have a responsibility,” McDonald said. “When they fail to uphold that responsibility, there are serious and criminal consequences.”
It wasn’t immediately known if the Crumbleys have lawyers who could comment on the involuntary manslaughter charges. Under Michigan law, the charge can be pursued if prosecutors believe someone contributed to a situation where harm or death was high.
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Mother Of Michigan School Shooting Suspect Texted ‘Don’t Do It’ After The Attack Started
Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult with two dozen crimes, including murder, attempted murder and terrorism, for the shooting Tuesday at the Oakland County school, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit.
Four students were killed and seven more people were injured. Three were in hospitals in stable condition.
Parents in the U.S. are rarely charged in school shootings involving their children, even as most minors get guns from a parent or relative’s house, according to experts.
Sheriff Mike Bouchard disclosed Wednesday that the parents met with school officials about their son’s classroom behavior, just a few hours before the shooting.
The superintendent for the district late Thursday posted a YouTube video where he said the teenager was called to the office before the shooting but “no discipline was warranted.”
Tim Throne, leader of Oxford Community Schools, said the high school looks like a “war zone” and won’t be ready for weeks. But he repeatedly credited students and staff for how they responded to the violence.
“To say that I am still in shock and numb is probably an understatement. These events that have occurred will not define us,” Throne, grim-faced and speaking slowly, said in the 12-minute video.
“I want you to know that there’s been a lot of talk about the student who was apprehended, that he was called up to the office and all that kind of stuff. No discipline was warranted,” Throne said. “There are no discipline records at the high school. Yes this student did have contact with our front office, and, yes, his parents were on campus Nov. 30.”
Throne said he couldn’t immediately release additional details.
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White reported from Detroit. Associated Press journalist Mike Householder in Detroit also contributed to this report.
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This was a massive “parent fail” and they do need to be charged. No adult should be buying a gun for a 15-year old and then leaving it unsecured. And the school bears some blame too.
BUT f the parents are at fault here.. WHY THEN are parents who REPEATEDLY BAIL OUT their criminal kids, for doing OTHER CRIMES
I’d say the school should get half the blame starting with the principal who failed to administer any disciplinary action.
Maybe they were following OBAMA issued orders to ‘stop the child to jail’ pipeline..
It seems that without knowing all of the facts, this was the perfect time for a “Time Out.” If they send the boy home, maybe there is a different outcome. But of course, the first responsibility is what we parents teach our kids. The liberals focus on “assault rifles” but that is mostly their lame misunderstanding of guns. But I can ask why most kids would have a pistol? Now, I admit that for a responsible teen, there might be a good answer, but most of the youth I know who own weapons have rifles for hunting. A few have pistols for target shooting.
Most of the folks i know, who DO train their kids on firearms early, START with BB rifles, then move on to .22 rifles, then add in an occasional pistol…
“These charges are intended to hold the individuals who contributed to this tragedy accountable and also send the message that gun owners have a responsibility,” McDonald said. “When they fail to uphold that responsibility, there are serious and criminal consequences.”
Not only is the prosecution right in this case, but the prosecution in Arizona needs to take this stance with Baldwin.
Lawyers, judges, DA’s and AG’s, ALSO HAVE A responsibility to uphold our laws, but as we’ve seen over the past 2 years, MANY are not doing so..
SO WHERE ARE THEIR CRIMINAL CONSEQUENCES!
Unfortunately there are people who should not own guns and who should not be parents. They reflect badly on the rest of us and become useful fodder for the gun control crowd.
I would like to think that any gun owner who had a mentally ill or criminally inclined child would do the responsible thing and get the guns out of the house. If what this prosecutor said is true they refused help for him.
Media is reporting now that the parents are on the run and the FBI is looking for them.
Also, it sounds to me that the school is responsible too. They found the drawings and threats and let the kid stay in school that day.
NOW LETS apply this SAME LOGIC she’s using, against ALL THOSE DA’s, AG’s and judges, WHO REPEATEDLY RELEASE KNOWN REPEAT criminals, who then go on to RAPE/Assault/ or even kill Others, WHILE OUT ON BAIL/parole/probation…
I agree but what about the parents of the 14 and 15 year old car jackers ,who kill ????
HELL< why has the story about that black school shooter, gone practically SILENT??? Where are HIS charges? Where are his PARENTS charges, if THEY kept bailing him out of trouble??
OK..lets look at basics here…. I’d bet the school spends more time with this kid than the both working parents do… The school system inserts responsibility for “social upbringing” and jams insane anti religious, anti faith indoctrination up the children’s keister, while mandating there are infinite number of genders coupled with pure hatred for the evil country governed by a Constitution created from racist fore fathers he lives in… and if the kid believes ANYTHING else he himself is racist and is severely screwed up to point he has to medicated and has to attend psychotherapy. Then when something goes wrong… it’s parents fault. So.. from my observation.. the more “Libtardism” is forced on society the more of this kind of outbreak happens. This NEVER happened 30 years ago before “Libtardism” was front and center. Yeah.. it’s the parents fault.
Why is nothing mentioned here about the bullying the boy had to endure until he broke. Not enough is being done about the bullying in schools.
MANY folks, were bullied as a kid. I DOUBT a single one EVER THOUGHT to grab a gun and shoot the school up..
SO GET OFF The “Oh he got bullied”, wagon.
The parents were arraigned this morning and are being held on an impossibly high bail. They face 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter that carry a possible 15 yr. penalty each.
I can’t imagine what anyone involved in this was thinking. Not the school officials in charge when they let him stay in school after seeing the pictures he drew or the parents who didn’t pull him out of school immediately. There was no one with any sense on the scene, apparently.
We all know there is a lot of bias but blaming media, laws, sheriffs, carjackers and any other injustice we can think of doesn’t change the fact that parents are ultimately responsible for their own actions and those of their child. If the school is too liberal, pull the kid out. If the kid seems a little off, get him some help or at the very least if he’s not right don’t buy him a gun. He’s their kid and it was their job to do what’s best for him until he is of age.
How about waiting till the investigation is complete to make any comments. And don’t look to the newspapers or most of the news media to give you the truth on this.
I grew up in the south in the sixties and owned a 12 gauge shotgun at 10 years old. I never thought once of using that shotgun to kill anyone, and I lived in the south during the Civil rights movement. Being a young poor white boy at that time made me the target of their anger. But I knew that killing someone was unimaginable. Times have changed though. People have lost something very valuable. The part in the Bible that tells us to treat others the way we want to be treated. I cry for the world.