James Crumbley, the father of the teenage school shooter who killed four students at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021, was convicted of manslaughter Thursday. This conviction comes a month after the shooter’s mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted of the same charges. He was convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for each charge, though they would run concurrently.
Crumbley’s then 15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley, used a SIG Sauer 9mm to kill four students and wound six others, including a teacher, on November 30th, 2021. Closing arguments on Wednesday argued that James Crumbley exhibited “gross negligence” due to his purchase of the firearm for his child. He purchased the weapon just days before the shooting, failed to properly secure the firearm, ignored his son’s rapidly deteriorating mental health, and did not take “reasonable care” to prevent possible violent action.
“James Crumbley is not on trial for what his son did,” Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald said, “James Crumbley is on trial for what he did and what he didn’t do.”
The cases against the Crumbley parents tested the limits of who can be found responsible for a school shooting. Previously, parents of school shooters were faced with neglect or firearms charges, but these are the first cases in which the parents were found directly and personally responsible for the deaths caused by their child’s actions.
Buck Myer, father of one of the victims, said “It’s time for the school to pony up. It’s time to break up that administration country club, and it’s time for change. Because we’ve got four kids dead and nobody wants to take any accountability,” in a press conference Thursday night. He continued to say “The gun is just a tool. So, we got to look at other things other than the gun. We gotta see what we can do to support these kids better. We need to solve this because no parents should go through the hell we’re going through.”
Steve St. Juliana, father of another victim, said that these are “just the beginning steps.” While the verdict is wonderful, “There is so much more that absolutely must be done — it’s crazy… Our children are dying on a daily basis in mass murders, and we do very little about it.”
Ethan Crumbley is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to one count of terrorism resulting in death, four counts of murder, and 19 other charges related to the school shooting.
