[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the convicted Michigan high school shooter, has been found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection to her son’s killings.
After roughly 11 hours of deliberation beginning on Monday, per ABC News, the jury came back with this verdict on Tuesday, finding the mother guilty of one count for each teenage victim her son murdered during a mass shooting at Oxford High School in November 2021. Jennifer’s husband, James, has also been charged with the same involuntary manslaughter counts and is expected to go on trial in March.
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Nick Suplina, Senior Vice President for Law and Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, celebrated the jury’s decision in a statement to People, reflecting:
“Today’s verdict underscores the important responsibility of parents and gun owners in preventing children from having unsupervised access to deadly weapons. […] Plain and simple, the deadly shooting at Oxford High School in 2021 should have — and could have — been prevented had the Crumbleys not acquired a gun for their 15-year-old son. This decision is an important step forward in ensuring accountability and, hopefully, preventing future tragedies.”
For those who haven’t been following the case, on the morning of the shooting, the parents were called for a meeting after the school saw a drawing of a gun the student had made, per the prosecution. But the meeting ended abruptly and Jennifer refused to bring her son home amid the school’s concerns about his mental health.
Her son went on to kill four kids and injure several more later that day using a gun his parents had purchased for him as an early Christmas present days prior. In December, the shooter was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to 24 charges (including terrorism) in 2022.
This is believed to be the first time a parent has been tried in connection to a mass shooting committed by their child, per NPR, so the guilty verdict is very significant. Her sentencing has been scheduled for April 9.
To learn more about the impact of gun violence, visit https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence.
[Image via Law&Crime Network/YouTube]