They prosecute the mother of the person responsible for the massacre

NEW YORK.- The trial of Jennifer Crumbley, whose son carried out the worst school massacre in Michigan history, opened Thursday with a juxtaposition of situations: a mother whose negligence was so extreme that it caused a tragedy, and another who was a good mother and a Even the “hypervigilant” did not know about her son’s problems until the tragedy happened.

Those starkly different images were presented to the jury in court in Pontiac, Michigan, located 20 miles south of Oxford High School, where the Nov. 30, 2021, massacre took place.

Although the case centered on a momentary legal question — whether parents can be held criminally responsible for violent crimes committed by their children — the horrors of that day in Oxford were present in testimony on the first day of the trial.

School employees, including one who was shot in the hand, testified about the terror they experienced, and surveillance video of the shooting showed some of the victims.

The man responsible, Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time, killed four students and injured seven others.

He pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including first-degree murder, and was sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mrs. Opposite cases. Crumbley and her husband, James Crumbley, are being pushed by some prosecutors to hold parents accountable when they are suspected of committing deadly violence against their children.

In recent months, parents whose children have committed gun violence in other states have pleaded guilty to charges of negligent conduct.

At the Michigan trial, Ms. Crumbley, 45, faces more serious charges: four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

The prosecution claims that despite signs of Ethan’s violent intent, his mother did not act on what she knew and holds her criminally responsible for the Oxford High School massacre.

Mr Crumbley, 47, has also been charged and will stand trial in March.

Many of the facts of the case were revealed in court documents before the trial.

Days before the shooting, Mr. Crumbley took Ethan to buy a SIG Sauer 9 millimeter pistol and Mrs. Crumbley took him to target practice.

On the morning of November 30, both parents were called to school because Ethan had drawn violent pictures in class, including a figure of the victim with a gun his parents had bought him and the words “blood everywhere”.

Contrary to the school counselor’s suggestion, Crumbley did not take her son out of school for medical attention and was unaware that he had brought a gun to school that day.