Jury selection is set to begin on Tuesday in the trial of James Crumbley, whose son killed four students and injured seven others at a Michigan high school in 2021, in the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history.
Three days after the shooting at Oxford High School, prosecutors took the rare step of filing involuntary manslaughter charges against Mr. Crumbley, 47, and his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, 45, setting up one of the nation’s most high-profile efforts to hold parents responsible for violent crimes committed by their children.
Ms. Crumbley was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a separate trial last month. She will be sentenced next month and faces up to 15 years in prison. The Crumbleys’ son pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including first-degree murder, and was sentenced in December to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Here’s what else to know about the case.
What happened at Oxford High
Officials called the Crumbleys to Oxford High School on the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, after a teacher saw a drawing by their son depicting a gun and ammunition. The son, Ethan Crumbley, was then a 15-year-old sophomore at the school in suburban Detroit.
“Blood everywhere,” he had written alongside the drawings. “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
The couple spoke with a counselor and decided that their son could stay at school that day, Ms. Crumbley testified during her trial. Neither his parents nor school officials searched his backpack, which contained a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer pistol.
The authorities said Ethan later fired 30 shots with the handgun in a school hallway, killing Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Justin Shilling, 17; and Hana St. Juliana, 14. Seven other people were injured.
