Who is responsible for mass shootings? He was no longer just the guy who pulled the trigger

(CNN) — Last month, a jury convicted Jennifer Crumbley of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2021 Oxford High School shooting — one count for each student her son killed.

The historic trial and surprise verdict tested the limits of who is responsible for mass shootings.

The conviction could have serious consequences for her husband, James Crumbley, who faces similar charges and whose trial is scheduled for Tuesday. He was the man who physically bought the firearm for his son and the man in charge of securing the weapons in their Michigan home, his wife testified at trial.

The prosecution of both parents, and the rise of other criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits related to mass shootings, suggests that prosecutors are increasingly trying to hold those responsible — and the companies — that didn’t pull the trigger.

An “aggressive and innovative” approach

According to Eli Honig, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor, in recent years prosecutors have slowly but steadily expanded the notion of who can be held responsible for mass shootings.

While he cautioned that each case rests on its own merits, “we’ve seen innovative actions by parents and security personnel,” he said, “and I would expect that trend to continue.”

Aside from Crumbley, there have been other high-profile prosecutions of non-shooters in recent years: Last year, a Highland Park, Illinois, father-of-one shooter pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal reckless conduct, like Crumbley’s, for shooting up a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago in 2022. His son for everyone killed.

The father, Robert Crimo Jr., reached a plea deal, reducing felony charges stemming from sponsoring his son’s gun license application, months after local police responded to reports of troubled behavior by the toddler.

Crimo Jr. was sentenced to 60 days in jail as part of the deal and was released from prison in December of last year. The trial of the attacker is scheduled to begin in February 2025.

Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Reinhart, who prosecuted both father and son, told CNN he was willing to settle the felony charges so the gunman’s father would face consequences, and to “bring attention to the fact that parents can be held accountable.” .”

Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly called the action “aggressive and innovative” at a press conference after the plea deal was announced.

“You may not be the person who pulled the trigger. You may not be the person with the gun, but if you know someone is a threat and you don’t act accordingly, especially if you’re a family member and you don’t ,” Kelly said.

And in a rare action by a law enforcement officer in response to a mass shooting, state prosecutors sought to hold a former school resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School accountable for standing by during the 2018 shooting that claimed the deaths of 17 people in Parkland, Florida.

The state filed child neglect charges under Florida statute governing caregivers, arguing that Scott Peterson, as a school resource officer, had a duty to protect students.

Peterson was acquitted last year of seven counts of felony child neglect and three counts of felony neglect. After his acquittal, he spoke to reporters and said “the only culprit was that monster,” referring to the attacker.

Even in shootings with fewer victims, parents are held responsible for their children’s shootings: The mother of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot his first-grade teacher was sentenced last year to 21 months in federal prison for the felony, and her 2 A Michigan man was the first to be charged under the state’s new safe gun storage laws, inspired by the Oxford and Michigan State University shootings, after a year-old daughter shot herself in the head with her own gun.

The question remains whether prosecuting non-shooters will be effective in reducing the number of mass shootings in the United States. University of Michigan law professor Thomas M. But it certainly expands prosecutors’ toolbox, Cooley said.

“It gives different prosecutors something to aim for, it gives them a new theory, it gives them something to prove,” Yankah told CNN. “It gives prosecutors who are frustrated, who are dealing with a devastating crime, a mass shooting that has harmed their community, a set of steps they can take.”

Prosecutors in cases like Jennifer Crumbley and Cremo Jr. can use established precedents in negotiating charges, Yanka said.

However, he warned that the expansion of liability would lead to more prison sentences in many cases that do not receive much press coverage, such as mass shootings.

“It’s always been the case that, as prosecutors have more and more tools, the people who are being prosecuted, or are particularly seriously responsible, are almost always the most politically vulnerable,” Yanka said, “especially Colored and poor people.

Justice wants to go after weapons manufacturers and social media companies

No one was charged with a crime in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that killed 20 children and six adults. The shooter, like many other perpetrators of mass shootings, took his own life.

The shooter’s mother, who was also killed by her son, legally purchased all the firearms obtained in the case. A state attorney’s report and a state child defender’s office report after the shooting found that she rejected several recommendations from medical professionals to treat her son for mental health problems and that he stopped taking his medication shortly after the shooting. They are suggested.

Ultimately, the state attorney concluded that the assailant “was solely criminally responsible for his actions that day.”

In a 2013 state attorney’s report author, Stephen J. Sedensky told CNN that his assessment of the Sandy Hook case focused and considered only the behavior of the attacker and not his mother’s role in killing him before he went to school.

Although there were no criminal charges in the Sandy Hook case, the victims’ families sought accountability in another way: with a historic $73 million civil settlement with Remington, the now-bankrupt manufacturer of the AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre. .

The families sued Remington in 2014, alleging that the gun maker should be partially responsible for the shooting because of its marketing strategy. A 2005 federal law protects many gun makers from wrongful-death lawsuits brought by family members, but the marketing argument was a new approach.

Others have followed suit: Survivors and relatives of victims of a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket have sued social media companies, the gunman’s parents and gun companies, alleging that they helped Payton kill 10 people and injure three others. Facilitated Gendron.

Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Gendron, who is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to terrorism and murder charges in New York state last year.

John Elmore, representing the plaintiffs, said oral arguments in the civil case have concluded and the defendants have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit. Although lawyers are still awaiting decisions on some of the motions, one filed by a social media company and another by a gun manufacturer, they have been denied, Elmore said.

And the family of a 10-year-old boy killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, has filed a lawsuit against nearly two dozen people and entities, including a gun manufacturer and a store that provided the rifle used in the shooting. assault and law enforcement officers who responded to the scene.

According to Eric Tirschwell, CEO of Everytown Law, which represents the plaintiffs, the defendants also requested the lawsuit be dismissed and the parties are now awaiting a judge’s decision.

The lawsuits against Buffalo and Uvalde gun manufacturers followed a Sandy Hook pattern, targeting gun manufacturers for their marketing practices.

“For nearly a decade, so-called innovative and enterprising, they have sought to impose market share liability on a large number of people, including gun manufacturers, specifically for the production of guns.” Yankah.

“And so, over the years, these cases have suffered one loss after another,” he said. “Slowly now, I think you’re starting to see the cracks in the armor.”