The parents of the teenager who killed four of his classmates in a high school in Michigan were arrested today, a day after they were prosecuted for negligent homicide because they bought a gun for their son as a Christmas present and did not heed warning signs.
Authorities were looking for James and Jennifer Crabley after accusations were leveled against them yesterday by the Oakland County Attorney's Office, according to which the Crabbells bought their son as a Christmas present the weapon with which he attacked his school and then ignored the warning signs for a murder.
Detroit police announced in the early hours of Saturday that they had detained the couple. Police found them in a "what looked like a residential building," said Detroit police spokeswoman Rudy Harper. "We arrested them," he replied when asked if the 15-year-old's parents had surrendered to the authorities on their own.
Their 15-year-old son, Ethan Crabley, is being held without bail and has been charged as an adult for committing the deadliest massacre this year in an American educational institution.
Crabley's parents were summoned to court yesterday afternoon, but stopped answering their lawyers' calls, according to Auckland County Assistant Sheriff Mike Maccabi, leading authorities to launch an investigation to locate them. "The escape and the fact that they ignored the prosecution will definitely be charged" against them, the county sheriff Michael Butchard noted in his announcement yesterday. "They can not escape the role they played in this tragedy," he added.
Four days before the attack at Oxford High School, Ethan accompanied his father to a local gun shop, where James Crumbley bought the semi-automatic weapon, according to prosecutors. Later that day, Ethan posted photos of the gun on social media, writing: "I just got my new beauty today." The next day, his mother wrote that the two were "trying out his new Christmas present," said County Attorney Karen McDonald. She mentioned a number of other warning signals that his parents said he did not heed.
On November 21, one of his teachers "caught" him looking for ammunition in a search of his cell phone. His mother later wrote to him in a message: "LOL, I'm not angry with you. "You have to learn not to get caught."
The morning before the massacre, a teacher found Ethan Crabley sketches depicting a pistol, a bullet and a bloody figure next to which were the words: "Blood everywhere", "My life is useless" and "Thoughts do not they stop - help me ".
School officials called his parents and instructed them to take Ethan to a counselor within 48 hours, McDonald said. The parents "objected" to taking their child home and did not look for his backpack or ask him about the gun, the prosecutor added. When the Krambleys left the meeting without their son, Ethan returned to the classroom and later came out of a toilet with a gun, killing four of his classmates and injuring seven others, according to authorities.
(KYPE - ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ-Reuters / ΗΦ)