Gun bought for son

US school massacre: mother of perpetrator convicted

Jennifer Crumbley bought her son Ethan (15) the murder weapon he used to kill four people and injure seven at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021.

(Bild: AP)

Jennifer Crumbley,the mother of the teenager who shot four students at a school in the US state of Michigan in 2021, has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter. It is the first time that a parent of a shooter has been convicted of personal responsibility in the USA.

A jury in Pontiac found the woman guilty in the highly publicized case. She now faces up to 15 years in prison, with the sentence to be announced in April.

The parents of shooter Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 years old at the time of the crime, were severely accused after the crime because they bought the murder weapon and gave their underage son access to it. They are also said to have ignored warnings from the boy's school environment. The 45-year-old mother pleaded not guilty in the trial. Her husband is due to stand trial in March.

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Son sentenced to life imprisonment
The son himself had pleaded guilty to all 24 charges. Last year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Ethan Crumbley did not testify in the trial against his mother. The teenager opened fire with a Sig Sauer pistol at his school in the small town of Oxford, north of Detroit, in November 2021. He killed four classmates and injured six other students and a teacher. The victims at Oxford High School were between 14 and 17 years old.

The parents had been called to the school on the day of the crime because drawings of the then 15-year-old with violent fantasies had been found. They are said to have refused to take their son home - and also did not check whether the teenager had the weapon with him. A short time later, the teenager opened fatal fire. During the trial, the mother explained that her husband had bought her son the gun. She emphasized that she never had any reason to believe that the teenager was capable of such an act of violence: "I wish he had killed us instead."

Jennifer Crumbley had bought her son Ethan (15) the murder weapon he used to kill four people and injure seven at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021.

(Bild: AP)

"Could have locked the guns away"
In her closing statement, prosecutor Karen McDonald accused the mother of failing to "exercise ordinary care". "She could have locked away the ammunition. She could have locked the gun away," McDonald emphasized. Defense attorney Shannon Smith, on the other hand, argued that her client could not be held responsible for her son's actions. No one could have foreseen them, she said.

The case has once again brought the question of the responsibility of parents for the actions of their children into focus. It is rare for parents to be charged and convicted for such acts of violence by minors in schools. Although parents have sometimes been held responsible for negligent behavior in the past, this case was apparently the first time a parent of a minor shooter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The jury of twelve reportedly spent more than ten hours deliberating on their verdict.

Time and again, school shootings
In the United States, fatal shootings at schools and universities occur again and again. Gun laws in the USA vary from state to state, but firearms such as pistols and assault rifles are usually relatively easy to obtain. Stricter gun laws usually fail because of the Republicans in Congress and the powerful gun lobby. US President Joe Biden has promised measures to curb gun violence - but so far without concrete results.