OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A prosecutor filed involuntary manslaughter charges Friday against the parents of a 15-year-old accused of killing four students and wounding seven other people at a Michigan High School.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter.
Authorities have said Ethan Crumbley opened fire shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday at Oxford High School, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit. Seven students and a teacher were shot before Crumbley surrendered to sheriff’s deputies.
Three of the students died Tuesday. The fourth died Wednesday at a hospital.
The semi-automatic gun used in the shooting was purchased legally by Crumbley’s father last week, according to investigators, and given to the boy.
“The parents were the only individuals in the position to know the access to weapons,” Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said Thursday. The gun “seems to have been just freely available to that individual.”
She said then that the parents’ actions went “far beyond negligence.”
During a Friday news conference, McDonald said the parents were summoned a few hours before the shooting after a teacher found a drawing of a gun, a person bleeding and the words “help me.”
Crumbley was returned to his classroom and later emerged from a bathroom, firing a gun at students. He’s charged with murder and other other charges.