They bought the gun for their kid just a few days before the shooting and despite apparently obvious signs that he was troubled. I don’t know what they were thinking.
On Friday, Jennifer (mom) Instagrammed a pic of the gun with the comment, “Mom & son day testing out his new Xmas present.”
On Monday a teacher caught him searching for ammo in class and alerted higher-ups. They left messages for Ethan’s mom about it, but she ignored them, except to text Ethan, “Lol, I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
On Tuesday another teacher found a note in his desk that “contained the following: a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointed at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.’ In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet: ‘Blood everywhere.’ Between the drawing of the gun and the bullet is the drawing of a person who appears to have been shot twice and bleeding. Below that figure is the drawing of a laughing emoji. Further down the drawing are the words, ‘My life is useless,’ and to the right of those words are, ‘The world is dead.'”
After that note was found, Ethan scratched off the violent parts, and his parents met with school admin on Tuesday morning. His parents knew full well he had access to a gun, was having dark thoughts, and yet no one thought to search his bag. The parents hemmed and hawed over taking him home for the day (the school asked them to apparently, but didn’t require them to do so), but the parents were ordered to get a psych consult within 48 hours.
After the meeting, he went into a bathroom with his bookbag, came out with a gun and started shooting his classmates.
As I said, I don’t know what the parents were thinking.
That he was stupid for getting caught?
Yet another update: they missed the arraignment and US Marshals have joined the search.
Scott Weinberg, Macomb County assistant prosecutor turned defense attorney:
“When and if they are picked up now, it’ll be hard to make that argument [for a bond as favorable as they could have gotten had they turned themselves in] with a judge,” Weinberg said. “They might not get the reasonable bond they could’ve gotten.”
Ya think, Scott?
There’s speculation that she at least is armed, and I have a sneaking suspicion that when they are found it will be in the company of a bunch of Second Amendment warriors / Rambo wannabes. If that’s the case, I doubt it will end well.
Parents’ lawyers say the parents “did not flee”. They were just, like, yanno, unavailable for the scheduled arraignment, and are now just in some undisclosed location, and probably heavily armed.
So, lunatic dad buys son a semi-automatic pistol for Christmas, son declares it “my new beauty” on social media, son murders students in mass shooting at his school, parents disappear after being charged with involuntary manslaughter.
A heartwarming American Christmas gun story.
So mom was a realtor. Do you suppose if she was your listing agent you’re free to find a new agent at this point?
Great. This is turning into another Ruby Ridge type of thing. The Second Amendment crowd is never gonna shut up about this.
Is the shooter their only child?
didn’t know that. Maybe they should check any empty houses she has access to.
Googling, apparently she gave up her license in 2018.
I think I read that the dad shares custody of his 18-year-old son with his first wife.
Isn’t that redundant? Aren’t all pistols semi-automatic nowadays?
Her bio was listed on an Oxford-area real estate company’s website until Wednesday. And I think news sites have reported her as either a Realtor or real estate broker.
They withdrew $4,000 from the bank and turned off their phones. (The Crumbly parents, not the brilliant kids.)
Here’s an interview with his ex-wife.
Some highlights:
“He’s a piece of (expletive). He really is,” Cobb told 7 Action News Friday.
Cobb said Crumbley left their son and a daughter he had with another woman in Florida when he moved out of state with Jennifer Crumbley.
Cobb said the issues were not the relationships between the adults because she and the mother of Crumbley’s now 24-year-old daughter chose to have a friendship for the sake of the children.
But Cobb said Jimmy (James) and Jennifer always looked for ways to criticize and complain about her because they hated that he had to pay child support for his son, Eli.
She said it was Jennifer Crumbley who was running the show and that she made it difficult for Eli to get closer to his dad and half-brother Ethan.
“Jennifer was a monster,” Cobb said. “She could do no wrong and she was right about everything. I mean, this is exactly the kind of attitude she has. Like, she, literally, thought she was better than everyone.”
Cobb said while the Crumbleys were giving Ethan whatever Ethan wanted, it was a hopeless struggle to get James to pay $67 a week in child support when he was earning a six-figure income.
Cobb said Jennifer Crumbley made it unbearable for her son to spend time with his dad and Ethan, but she’s thankful her son returned to Florida just before the pandemic.
Eli spent about four months visiting the Crumbleys in their Oxford home before deciding to go back to live with his mother.
None of us do, but I wouldn’t be shocked if words like “snowflakes,” “thin-skinned,” and “freedom,” were going through at least one of their heads. Just going off statements the mother is reported to have made on social media circa 2016. And the whole buying their fifteen year-old a handgun for Christmas.
Fugitives’ car found on east side of Detroit. Either they’re switching vehicles, swimming to Canada or they’ve performed redneck hari-kari.
What kind of parents go on the lam and leave behind their 15-year-old son, who’s in jail on charges of multiple counts of first degree murder and terrorism?
OK, maybe that’s a rhetorical question.
Some pistols are better-known as revolvers.
But revolvers are semi-automatics as well, correct? Firing a shot from a revolver automatically moves another cartridge into firing position?