A 16-year-old admitted guilt this Monday in Oakland County Circuit Court, facing 24 charges tied to a high school shooting outside Detroit in November of last year. Four students lost their lives in the tragedy.
The defendant, who was 15 at the time of the incident, is accused of opening fire at Oxford High School on November 30, 2021, killing two boys aged 17 and 16 and two girls aged 17 and 14, and injuring six other students and a teacher.
The charges span from terrorism-related offenses to first-degree murder, potentially leading to life imprisonment. During the proceedings, the Oakland County judge, Kwame Rowe, asked the accused if he had pleaded guilty as the list of crimes was read aloud; Crumbley answered affirmatively each time.
Ignored signals
In a separate civil case, Crumbley’s parents face manslaughter charges. Prosecutors say the weapon used belonged to the father and that warnings from teachers about their son needing psychological help were ignored.
Moments before the shooting, a teacher found a gun on Crumbley’s desk and a note that read, “As soon as the thoughts stop, help me.”
The note also contained a drawing with the message “Blood everywhere,” as investigators revealed during the trial.
Despite the warnings, the young man’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, declined requests from teachers to remove their son from campus, and the violence unfolded a few hours later.
When the charges were announced, the parents fled and were on the run for hours. Police later broadcast a nationwide alert before Crumbley was located in a Detroit-area warehouse.
Shots on the rise
In recent years, armed attacks on educational settings have increased across the United States, with high-profile cases such as the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that claimed 26 lives and the 2022 Robb Elementary School tragedy in Uvalde, which resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers.
Was 2021 the only year with a school shooting of this scale in Michigan? National statistics show hundreds of firearm incidents in school districts, leading to dozens of deaths and injuries. Analysts from Everytown for Gun Safety have highlighted how these incidents compare to gun-control data and broader trends in public safety.