A day before four students died at a school shooting in Michigan last year, the mother of Ethan Crumbley purportedly texted him asking if he showed the picture of his “new gun” to his teacher, an investigator told the court on Tuesday.
“No, I didn’t show them the pic. My god,” he replied, according to the USA Today. “I only told them I went to the range with you on Saturday. I guess the teachers can’t keep their eyes off my screen.”
It was one of the many texts exchanged between Jennifer Crumbley and her son on 29 November, a day before the massacre, when school staff attempted to alert his parents that the teenager had been searching for ammunition on his phone.
Though the school administration sent a voicemail informing them about the same, the said messages were reportedly ignored and the 15-year-old, now charged with carrying out the shooting, was allowed to remain in the school building, reported the Associated Press.
Ed Wagrowski, computer crimes investigator in the Oakland County sheriff’s office, read out a series of texts allegedly exchanged between the mother and son.
“Seriously?? Looking up bullets at school?” the mother wrote, to which Ethan responded that he was only “curious” and his search was “completely harmless”.
The teenager also told his mother that he wanted to listen to the voicemail left by his school, as the mother assured him he was not in trouble. “Lol I’m not mad,” she reportedly told him. “You have to learn how to not get caught.”
A judge should now decide whether the evidence meets the threshold to hold a trial on involuntary manslaughter charges against Ethan’s parents – Jennifer and James Crumbley.
Parents are seldom held criminally liable for the actions of their children in cases of mass shootings. But in this case, the Crumbleys were charged days after the shooting as prosecutors said they had given their teenage son access to a firearm and ignored multiple warning signs about their son’s behaviour in the lead-up to the shooting.
The Crumbleys have been accused of buying their son the firearm used in the attack as an early Christmas present, just days before the shooting.
The defence attorney, however, insisted that the couple did not know their son might be planning an attack, adding that they did not make guns easy to find at home.
On the morning of the shooting, prosecutors said a teacher found a drawing on the teenager’s desk of a handgun, a bullet and a person being shot. “The thoughts won’t stop, help me” and “blood everywhere” were scrawled on the note.
That time, his parents were called into the school and a meeting was held with them, their son and school officials. The teenager claimed that the drawings were simply designs for a video game, according to school officials.
Ms Crumbley’s co-worker, Amanda Holland, however informed the court that the mother shared the drawing with her on returning to work. “I told her I thought it was scary,” Ms Holland deposed. “She agreed.”
Andrew Smith, who is the chief operating officer of the real estate company where Ms Crumbley worked, also testified at the hearing that Ms Crumbley had sent him a photo of Ethan’s disturbing drawing and told him “this is what I’m dealing with”, as she said she needed to go to his school to meet with staff that morning.
He said that sometime after she returned to work, he heard her let out a scream in the office.
“I heard loud yelling, screaming,” he told the court describing the moment when Ms Crumbley learned of the shooting at Oxford High School.
She then allegedly texted him that she believed her son was the shooter and feared he would turn the gun on himself. “Omg Andy he’s going to kill himself he must be the shooter... Ethan did it,” she texted him. “The gun is gone and so are the bullets.”
Mr Smith told the court he was “surprised” when Ms Crumbley then sent him a text worrying about her job. “I need my job. Please don’t judge me about what my son did,” she texted him.
Ethan has been charged as an adult with 24 counts, including four counts of first-degree murder and one count of terrorism in connection with the 30 November shooting. Four students – Hana St Juliana, 14, Tate Myre, 16, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17 – were killed.
The hearing in the case will resume on 24 February.
Additional reporting by agencies
