Ethan Crumbley, an American teenager was sentenced to life in prison on Friday for shooting dead four students at his Michigan high school, with the case drawing additional attention because his parents are also facing charges.
Ethan Crumbley was 15 years old when the incident occurred on November 30, 2021, at Oxford High School in the Detroit suburbs, yet he was charged as an adult.
Crumbley, now 17, was sentenced by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Crumbley, who was wearing thick black glasses and an orange prison jumpsuit, spoke to the court before his sentence, calling himself a “really bad person.”
Parents of the victims and survivors of the mass shooting also testified on how the killings affected their lives.
“For the past two years, our family has been navigating our way through complete hell,” said Buck Myre, whose son Tate was among those killed.
“We miss Tate,” Myre said. “Our family has a permanent hole in it that can never be fixed. Ever.”
Crumbley pleaded guilty last October to bringing a 9mm Sig Sauer handgun to school and opening fire on classmates.
Four classmates, aged 14 to 17, were killed, and six other kids and a teacher were injured.
While teen school shootings have become an all-too-common aspect of American life, it is extremely rare for parents to face prosecution.
James Crumbley and Jennifer Crumbley, Crumbley’s parents, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
They are accused not only of providing a weapon to their son but also of ignoring mounting signs that he was on the verge of violence.
Just days before the incident, James Crumbley allegedly purchased a weapon for his son and took him to a shooting range.
On the day of the shooting, the Crumbleys were summoned to the school because a teacher was “alarmed” by a note she discovered on Ethan’s desk.
The parents were shown the painting and told that the boy needed to go to counseling.
They apparently refused to take their son home, and he returned to school.
He then went into a lavatory, resurfaced with the rifle he had hidden in his backpack, and fired more than 30 shots.
In November, the father of an Illinois man accused of murdering seven people in July 2022 pleaded guilty to “reckless conduct” for assisting his son in obtaining the assault rifle used in the mass massacre.
