Oakland County, Michigan prosecutor Karen McDonald revealed a teacher was so alarmed by a note she saw on Ethan Crumbley‘s desk the morning of the shooting she took a photo of it with her cell phone and alerted school administrators. Hours later eleven students would be shot. Four of them died.
That note, McDonald revealed, “contained the following: a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing 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 a drawing of a person who appears to have been shot twice and bleeding. Below that figure is a drawing of a laughing emoji. Further down the drawing are the words, ‘my life is useless,’ and to the right of that are the words, ‘The world is dead.'”
Crumbley, 15, is the accused Oakland High School mass shooter who is now facing murder and terrorism charges and is being charged as an adult. On Friday McDonald announced she is charging his parents with four counts of homicide involuntary manslaughter.
“As a result,” of the teacher finding the note, McDonald told reporters, “James and Jennifer Crumbley were immediately summoned to the school. A school counselor came to the classroom and removed the shooter and brought him to the office with his backpack.”
She says the school counselor had obtained the note but Crumbley “had already altered it.”
“The drawings of the gun and the bloody figure were scratched out along with the words ‘help me,’ and ‘my life is useless,’ ‘The world is dead,’ and ‘blood everywhere.’ Those were all altered by him”.
“At the meeting James and Jennifer Crumbley were shown the drawing and were advised that they were required to get their son into counseling within 48 hours. Both James and Jennifer Crumbley failed to ask their son if he had his gun with him, or where his gun was located, and failed to inspect his backpack for the presence of the gun, which he had with him.”
McDonald says the parents “resisted the idea of … their son leaving the school at that time. Instead, James and Jennifer promptly left the high school without their son. He was returned to the classroom.”
The mass shooting began shortly thereafter.
Ethan Crumbley is accused of murdering four of his classmates and wounding seven others. The students who died are Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17.
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