Note: There are mentions of sensitive topics like gun violence, mass shootings, and school shootings in the following article. Please consider reading this with a trusted adult.
On November 30, 2021 Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17, were killed in the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan. The shooting was one of the 689 mass shootings that occurred in 2021 according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Gun violence still plagues the United States. However, a new groundbreaking precedent is being set as Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the Oxford High School shooter, are facing trial for their contributions to the massacre as they were neglectful and enabled their son’s actions. This case might set a new principle, potentially deterring parents from giving their children access to firearms.
Jennifer Crumbley’s trial began on January, 25, 2024, and she is facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Her husband, James, is facing similar charges; his court date is set in March. The shooter was sentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole in December 2023 according to the New York Times (NYT).
It is not common to be charged for actions committed by someone else, as “One of the bedrock principles in American criminal law is that you’re not responsible for somebody else’s actions,” Ekow N. Yankah, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School explained to the NYT.
However, the Crumbleys are facing these charges because they failed to address their son’s behavior leading up to the shooting.
First the parents allowed his access to a gun. Mr. Crumbley took his son to buy the nine millimeter SIG Sauer handgun, used in the shooting, and Mrs. Crumbley took him to target practice days before the shooting, according to the NYT. The parents failed to securely store or register the gun as well.
The day of the shooting, the parents refused to get their son medical help after he was pulled from class for drawing violent images. The school called both parents, with the school counselor’s suggesting that they should take him to get “immediate medical help,” but the parents sent him back to class, reported the NYT. The shooter was in possession of the gun before and after the meeting. Within hours of this meeting, the shooting occurred.
The parents had multiple opportunities to prevent what would lead to the deaths of four children, but they did not, and they will be held accountable by the Oakland County court for that.
There are claims from the parents’ lawyers that they were not aware of the mental state their son was in, however the school did suggest he seek medical help, which the Crumbleys did not listen to.
In recent years there have been several cases where parents of mass shooters have been charged in relation to their children’s crimes. Robert Crimo Jr., the father of the Highland Park 4th of July parade shooter, pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct in November of last year, according to the NYT. Crimo Jr. was charged because he sponsored his son’s application to the state of Illinois for a gun ownership permit in 2019. His son exhibited violent tendencies, and in 2019 a family member had called the police on him because he had threatened to “kill everyone.” The police removed 16 knives, a dagger, and a sword from his possession but did not arrest him because they did not have probable cause.
A little over two years later, he killed seven people in the shooting.
Crimo Jr.’s decision to allow his son access to firearms when he was displaying troubled behavior was a “reckless and dangerous” decision, Eric Rinehart, the top prosecutor in Lake County, Illinois, told the NYT.
In another case, Jeffery Reinking, father of the shooter who killed four people in a Nashville Waffle House in 2018 was sentenced for illegally providing his son with a gun in 2022, according to The Tennessean. Reinking’s son had a mental breakdown in 2016 and spent time at Methodist Medical Center of Illinois – Mental Health Unit, reported the Central Illinois Proud. Reinking was charged with the illegal delivery of a firearm to a person who had been treated for mental illness within the past five years.
When Reinking gave his son a firearm, after knowing he was mentally unstable, he enabled the shooting. When Crimo Jr. signed off on the permit, knowing of his son’s threats, he enabled the shooting. The Crumbleys did the same.
Reinking and Crimo Jr. were held accountable for their part in deadly shootings. And as of February 6, 2024, Mrs. Crumbley was held accountable as well. Mrs. Crumbley was found guilty by jury and can serve a maximum of 15 years after her conviction, according to the NYT.
