Current:Home > MarketsOfficial found it ‘strange’ that Michigan school shooter’s mom didn’t take him home over drawing-LoTradeCoin
Official found it ‘strange’ that Michigan school shooter’s mom didn’t take him home over drawing
View Date:2024-12-24 00:20:19
A Michigan school official told jurors Tuesday that he felt he had no grounds to search a teen’s backpack before the boy fatally shot four fellow students, even though staff met with the teen’s parents that morning to discuss a violent drawing he had scrawled on a math assignment.
Nick Ejak, who was in charge of discipline at Oxford High School, said he was concerned about Ethan Crumbley’s mental health but did not consider him to be a threat to others on Nov. 30, 2021.
After the meeting about the drawing, the teen’s parents declined to take their son home. A few hours later, he pulled a 9mm gun from his backpack and shot 11 people inside the school.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say she and her husband were grossly negligent and could have prevented the four deaths if they had tended to their son’s mental health. They’re also accused of making a gun accessible at home.
Much of Ejak’s testimony focused on the meeting that morning, which included him, the parents, the boy and a counselor. The school requested the meeting after a teacher found the drawing, which depicted a gun and a bullet and the lines, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. The world is dead. My life is useless.”
Ejak said he didn’t have reasonable suspicion to search the teen’s backpack, such as nervous behavior or allegations of vaping or possessing a weapon.
“None of that was present,” he told the jury, adding that the drawing also didn’t violate the school’s conduct code.
Ejak said he found it “odd” and “strange” that Jennifer and James Crumbley declined to immediately take their son home.
“My concern was he gets the help he needs,” Ejak said.
Jennifer Crumbley worked in marketing for a real estate company. Her boss, Andrew Smith, testified that the business was “very family friendly, family first,” an apparent attempt by prosecutors to show that she didn’t need to rush back to work after the morning meeting at the school.
Smith said Jennifer Crumbley dashed out of the office when news of the shooting broke. She sent him text messages declaring that her son “must be the shooter. ... I need my job. Please don’t judge me for what my son did.”
“I was a little taken aback,” Smith said. “I was surprised she was worried about work.”
The jury saw police photos of the Crumbley home taken on the day of the shooting. Ethan’s bedroom was messy, with paper targets from a shooting range displayed on a wall. The small safe that held the Sig Sauer handgun was open and empty on his parents’ bed.
Ejak, the high school dean, said the parents didn’t disclose that James Crumbley had purchased a gun as a gift for Ethan just four days earlier. Ejak also didn’t know about the teen’s hallucinations earlier in 2021.
“It would have completely changed the process that we followed. ... As an expert of their child, I heavily rely on the parents for information,” he said.
James Crumbley, 47, will stand trial in March. The couple are the first parents in the U.S. to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. Ethan, now 17, is serving a life sentence.
___
Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez
veryGood! (8582)
Related
- Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian Team Up for SKIMS Collab With Dolce & Gabbana After Feud
- 3 Social Security surprises that could cost you in retirement
- India-led alliance set to fund solar projects in Africa in a boost to the energy transition
- Actor Robert De Niro tells a jury in a lawsuit by his ex-assistant: ‘This is all nonsense’
- The NBA Cup is here. We ranked the best group stage games each night
- Watchdog group says attack that killed videographer ‘explicitly targeted’ Lebanon journalists
- Biden administration takes on JetBlue as its fight against industry consolidation goes to court
- Connecticut police officer under criminal investigation for using stun gun on suspect 3 times
- UConn, Kansas State among five women's college basketball games to watch this weekend
- Kate Hudson Reflects on Conversations With Late Matthew Perry About Trials and Tribulations of Love
Ranking
- Trump breaks GOP losing streak in nation’s largest majority-Arab city with a pivotal final week
- Sports Equinox is today! MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL all in action for only time in 2023
- A North Carolina woman and her dad enter pleas in the beating death of her Irish husband
- Tropical Storm Pilar heads toward El Salvador and is expected to bring heavy rain to Central America
- Watch a rescuer’s cat-like reflexes pluck a kitten from mid-air after a scary fall
- Breast cancer survivor pushes for earlier screening as younger women face rising cases: What if I had waited?
- Aaron Spears, drummer for Ariana Grande and Usher, dies at 47: 'Absolute brightest light'
- Elite Kenyan police unit goes on trial in the killing of a prominent Pakistani journalist last year
Recommendation
-
Crews battle 'rapid spread' conditions against Jennings Creek fire in Northeast
-
Federal agents tackle Jan. 6 defendant Vitali GossJankowski during physical altercation at court hearing
-
Pasadena police investigate report of missing items from Colorado locker room following UCLA game
-
FDA urging parents to test their kids for lead after eating WanaBana apple cinnamon puree pouches
-
Michigan soldier’s daughter finally took a long look at his 250 WWII letters
-
Maui police release 16 minutes of body camera footage from day of Lahaina wildfire
-
Alabama man charged with threatening Fulton County DA Fani Willis over Trump case
-
Family sues Colorado funeral home where 189 decaying bodies were found over alleged fake ashes