On November 30, 2021, Ethan Crumbley, 15, brought a weapon to his high school in Michigan, in the North in the United States. That day, he killed two girls and two boys aged 14 to 17, injured six other students and a teacher.
According to American media, and after a little more than a day of deliberations, James Crumbley, 47, the father of the high school student sentenced to life imprisonment, was found guilty on Thursday March 14 of involuntary manslaughter by the twelve jurors, a few weeks after a similar verdict for the teenager’s mother, Jennifer Crumbley.
During her trial, the latter testified that her husband had brought back a Sig Sauer 9 mm caliber pistol as an early Christmas gift a few days before the killing. She said she took her son to a shooting range the next day.
Despite a summons from parents at the school on the day of the tragedy – the teachers having discovered an “alarming” drawing on Ethan Crumbley’s table and advising them to get him psychological treatment – they left without bringing him home.
The parents face up to fifteen years in prison
The parents were charged with manslaughter resulting from a failure in their legal duty to control the actions of their child. They face up to fifteen years in prison. The sentencing of Jennifer Crumbley, also found guilty of manslaughter in early February, was set for April 9.
A minor at the time of the facts, Ethan Crumbley was tried as an adult and sentenced in December to life in prison without the possibility of early release. The teenager pleaded guilty in October 2022 to bringing the gun with fifty bullets in his backpack to his high school and shooting the high school students.
Faced with the number of firearm deaths involving minors, pressure is mounting in the United States to punish parents who, often through negligence, allow access to these weapons.