According to the Detroit Free Press, Jennifer and Jason Crumbley ignored substantial red flags with their son, Ethan, before he opened fire at Oxford High School last month, killing four people and wounding several others. The Crumbleys were arrested and face manslaughter charges while their son, 15, faces 24 different counts as an adult.
According to the outlet, a prosecutor says Ethan Crumbley’s parents were aware that their son was depressed and heading down a dangerous and violent path. However, instead of dealing with their son over his “troubling” texts and other red flags, they were busy with their own lives, including the mother having extramarital affairs.
“The defendants had information long before Nov. 30 (six months prior to the shooting) that their son’s only friend moved at the end of October, that the family dog died, that their son was sadder than usual, and that he was sending his mother disturbing texts about his state of mind,” the prosecution wrote in a court filing on Thursday. “Instead of paying attention to their son and getting him help, they bought him a gun.”
Prosecutors said that the parents kept the gun in an unlocked cupboard.
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“… they knew that their son was depressed, that he was fascinated with guns … that he had been researching ammunition while at a school and that he was seen watching violent videos of shootings that morning,” the prosecutor wrote in her filing. “Before they left school that day, they had also seen the disturbing drawings.”
There were more red flags.
“Their son was torturing animals, even kept a baby bird’s head in a jar on his bedroom floor, which he later took and placed in a school bathroom,” the prosecutor’s filing states. “Meanwhile, the parents were focusing on their issues, things like extramarital affairs, financial issues, and substance abuse.”
Instead of dealing with their son’s issues, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said that during this same period, the Crumbleys spent their time at a barn caring for their horses several nights a week for up to three hours at a time, and “seeking other relationships, including (the) mother’s extramarital affairs.”
In an open letter to Donald Trump in 2016, Jennifer Crumbley thanked then-president-elect “for my right to bear arms” even though the former reality show star had nothing to do with ratifying the Second Amendment in 1791. And after that, she bought her son a gun, then failed to store it properly — then people died. Children died.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
