Manslaughter charges against Michigan shooter's parents break new legal ground

By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - There is little precedent for the criminal charges against the parents of Ethan Crumbley, the Michigan teenager who fatally shot four of his high school classmates with a handgun on Tuesday, but prosecutors may have a strong case, legal experts said.

Detroit police said early on Saturday that the parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, had been taken into custody.

Michigan prosecutors on Friday charged https://www.reuters.com/world/us/parents-michigan-teen-accused-school-shooting-could-face-own-charges-2021-12-03 the couple with involuntary manslaughter for buying their son the weapon as a Christmas gift and ignoring warning signs as late as the day of the shooting. They said Jennifer Crumbley wrote in a text message to her son, "LOL, I'm not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught," after a teacher saw him searching for ammunition on his phone during class.

The morning of the shooting, a teacher discovered a drawing that Ethan Crumbley had made depicting a handgun, a bullet, and a bleeding figure, with the words "Blood everywhere" and "The thoughts won't stop - help me." After being summoned to the school and shown the picture, James and Jennifer Crumbley did not take their son home, search his backpack or ask about the gun, prosecutors said.

The Crumbleys' lawyers, Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, on Friday denied reports that their clients were fleeing law enforcement.

Some states have laws holding gun owners liable for failing to secure weapons around children, but Michigan does not. That means prosecutors will be relying on traditional criminal law, under which they must prove that the Crumbleys were not merely negligent, but grossly negligent or reckless, the experts said.

Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult, even though he is under 18.

FIRST CASE AGAINST PARENTS

The case appears to be the first against parents of a teenage school shooter. While other parents have been charged for deaths resulting from unsecured guns, those cases have involved much younger children, experts said.