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A JUDGE HAS granted more time to collect and share additional evidence against the parents of a boy charged with killing four students at Oxford High School in the US.
Prosecutor Karen McDonald asked that the Michigan community be given “time to heal” during the holiday season.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are charged with involuntary manslaughter. They are accused of giving 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley access to a gun and failing to intervene when they were confronted with his disturbing drawings a few hours before the shooting on 30 November.
The teenager is separately charged as an adult with murder and other crimes.
Judge Julie Nicholson granted a request to postpone until 8 February a key hearing that will determine whether the elder Crumbleys will face a trial.
“These funerals have just recently concluded,” McDonald said.
“The prosecutor’s office has a lot of work to do with a lot of the victims and the families. We do not think it’s in their best interest or in the interests of justice to do that during the holiday season.”
Besides the deaths of four students, six students and one teacher were injured.
“We have police narratives, we have digital evidence, we have video evidence,” the prosecutor later told reporters, adding that a delay in court proceedings would help her office prepare and also give Oxford “time to heal to the extent that’s possible”.
The parents were arrested on 4 December, hiding in a commercial building in Detroit, hours after charges were announced. They remain in prison, apparently unable to pay bonds of $500,000 each, although defence lawyer Shannon Smith said she would ask for new terms on 7 January.
Ethan Crumbley had a brief court hearing on Monday and will return on 7 January.
Oxford High School, about 30 miles (48 kilometres) north of Detroit, has been closed since the shooting.
Other schools in the Oxford district were closed today out of “an abundance of caution” after an online threat was directed at a middle school, officials said.
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I really hope they charge them, it’s the right road to take and might make other parents think twice about buying a gun for a 15 year old on black Friday!?! What a pair of human meat sacks…. They need to answer to the poor parents of the kids he killed. What a warped country.
@Dawn Harvey: they have been charged. It’s why they are in court.
@transik: a few teens hanging around on a street corner is the exact same as multiple school shootings every year alright.
The comments section for this article is open but the one below it about Prince Andrew is closed??
Are they not just as responsible as the leader who instigated the Capitol building riots? Leading to murdr
@Dean: “Are they not just as responsible as the leader who instigated the Capitol building riots? Leading to murdr”
Who was murdered at the Capitol riot?
@Dean: what murder?
If you start charging people over the actions of their children, where do you stop. And where’s the line. I just don’t see this case sticking at all. The fact they’re having a break in the case has all the signalling that this case won’t stand up. And I think that’s the right decision. Sure you can charge someone with not safety storing a weapon but this leap to murder is far too remote. This case is a knee jerk reaction by local authorities towards a grieving community.
@RogersRabbit: the father bought a gun for his 15-year old and knew about his intention to carry out a school massacre. That’s at least manslaughter, if not enticing to murder.
@RogersRabbit: the school asked the parents to remove the child from school and to bring him to a counsellor because of his concerning behaviour. They refused and left the child in school, without any support. They have at the very least neglected their own child big way, that’s criminally punishable
@RogersRabbit: michigan is one of the only, if not the only state in the USA that doesn’t require that a gun be stored under lock and key by law. However it is illegal for someone under the age of 18 to possess a handgun there and they bought it for him for his 16th birthday. Furthermore the mother told the kid not to get caught in future when the school reported that he was caught looking at amunition on his phone. I agree that it’s going to be tough to get the manslaughter charges to stick though. Which is a pity because his parents come across as s c u m. Hopefully they’ll get some sort of federal conviction so they are never able to own guns again.
@Sebastian Manka: that hasn’t been established. The father buying a gun and the parents being told teachers were concerned about him once or twice are two independent things.
@Daniela Monza: since when is not bringing your child to a counsellor criminally punishable. There’s a big diff between being a bad parent and one that should be in prison.
@RogersRabbit: they failed to secure their weapon as the law requires resulting in the commission of a crime. We don’t need further gun laws; we need the existing laws enforced.
Because he is 15 and the crimes he’s alleged to have committed are so serious. And at 15 he’s old enough to know what he did was wrong. Also the age at with serious crimes are been committed is dropping, and consideration is taken into account if this person poses a serious threat or is likely to reoffend.
Could someone explain why/how he is being tried as an adult please?
@Waylanderj: it is a legal option subject to a legal challenge pending his mental health evaluation. Setting an arbitrary age is not a standard across the US. Do you think a standard period is superior to an individual maturity assessment? His trial should he plead not guilty, will be informative.
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