Oxford School Shooting: What We Know So Far

OXFORD, MI — Authorities say 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley brought a backpack containing a gun, multiple rounds of ammunition and a journal describing a murderous plan into Oxford High School on Tuesday — carrying out what became the 29th school shooting resulting in injury or death in America this year.

Four students at Crumbley’s school are dead. Of the other seven students who were shot with a 9 mm Sig Sauer semiautomatic handgun that authorities said Crumbley’s father legally bought on Black Friday, three remained hospitalized Thursday, one of them in critical condition.

Crumbley, a sophomore at the school, was charged as an adult Wednesday with four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder, 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony and one count of terrorism causing death.

• RELATED: 3 Oxford High School Students Remain Hospitalized, 1 In Critical Condition

Crumbly’s parents may face charges, too, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said at a news conference Wednesday.

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Here are five things to know about the Oxford school shooting and school shootings in general:

1. School Shootings Trend Line Is Alarming

Americans have become accustomed to active-shooter situations at schools since the Columbine massacre ripped away the veneer of safety in 1999. They occur with alarming frequency, chipping away at American families’ sense of security.

Indeed, more than a dozen Detroit metro area schools closed Thursday out of an abundance of caution.

Education Week, which has tracked school shootings since mid-2018, said 29 school shootings have occurred so far this year, 21 of them since August. Amid the coronavirus lockdowns of 2020, school shootings dwindled to 10, down by more than half the number reported in 2019 and 2018, which each had 24 school shootings.

The shootings so far this year have killed 11 people — eight of them students or children and three of them school staff or other adults — and injured 49 people.

The school shooting in Michigan is the deadliest school shooting since 2018, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit formed in 2013 to track U.S. gun violence. In May 2018, eight students and two teachers were slain at Santa Fe High School in Texas.

Mark Bryant, the executive director of the Gun Violence Archive, told the Detroit Free Press he expects more school shootings as things get back to normal.

“It reflects the growing patterns that we're seeing with adults: more guns available, more guns not secured, more guns sold on the streets and that equals more shootings,” he said.

2. Journal Describes ‘Desire To Shoot Up The School’

When authorities searched Crumbley’s home, they found two cell phone videos recorded the night before the shooting in which he talked about wanting to kill his classmates, Oakland County Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Willis told a judge at Crumbley’s arraignment.

“Further,” Willis said, “a journal was also recovered from Ethan's backpack detailing his desire to shoot up the school to include murdering students.”

• RELATED: Who Is Ethan Crumbley? 5 Things To Know

Investigators have said Crumbley boasted about the 9 mm Sig Sauer on his now-disabled Instagram page and pretending it was his own. He also reportedly wrote on Instagram hours before the shooting: “Now I become death — destroyer of worlds — see you tomorrow Oxford.”

3. Two Teachers Were Worried About Suspect’s Behavior

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, speaking to CNN on Thursday, said two Oxford High School teachers had reported to school officials prior to the shooting that Crumbley was behaving unusually.

Bouchard wasn’t specific but said one teacher “saw and heard something that she felt was disturbing” and reported that Monday. Then, hours before the shooting on Tuesday, another teacher “saw some behavior that they thought was concerning,” Bouchard said.

Ultimately, Crumbley’s parents were called, but the decision was made to allow him to return to class.

• RELATED: Crumbley’s Journal, Cell Phone Videos Showed Desire To Kill: Authorities

4. The Terrorism Charge Is Unusual

McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor, said the terrorism charge is “not a usual, typical charge” but was appropriate given the number of people who were affected by the violence.

“What about all the children who ran, screaming, hiding under desks? What about all the children at home right now, who can’t eat and can’t sleep and can’t imagine a world where they could ever step foot back in that school?” McDonald said at the Wednesday news conference. “Those are victims, too, and so are their families and so is the community. The charge of terrorism reflects that.”

A law implemented after the 9/11 attacks is the impetus for the Michigan law that authorized the terrorism charges, The Associated Press reported. The state law passed in 2002 defines a terrorist act as one intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to affect the conduct of a government through intimidation or coercion.

Bouchard said he backs the terrorism charge “100 percent.”

“If you weren't hit by a bullet, it doesn't mean you weren't terrorized that day and won't have nightmares about (it) the rest of your life — whether you're a parent, a teacher or a student in that class,” he said.

The first time a terrorism charge was filed in a threat of school violence in Michigan was in 2005, when a teen in Macomb County, which borders Oakland County, was convicted after authorities said he had plotted a massacre at his school.

That terrorism charge was filed by county authorities. The first time the state used the charge was in 2012, when the Michigan Attorney General’s Office used the statute to charge a man who had fired shots at about two-dozen vehicles on the Interstate 96 corridor.

Matthew Schneider, a former federal and state prosecutor who is not involved in the Oxford case, told the AP the charge is typically reserved for people who make terrorist threats, but that he believes it is appropriate.

“This is why we have this law. It's for this type of case. This is not just a murder case," Schneider said of this week's slayings. “It's going to terrorize a generation of these kids who were in the school. The impact is on thousands of people.”

5. Crumbley’s Parents Could Be Charged

Bouchard said Crumbley used a 9 mm Sig Sauer SP 2022 pistol his father had bought for him on Black Friday. He fired off at least 30 rounds, likely reloading at least once, according to a preliminary estimate based on shell casings found at the scene, the sheriff said.

Bouchard said that when Crumbley was apprehended, he had three 15-round magazines — 11 rounds in the handgun and magazine, and another seven rounds in his pocket.

McDonald said at the news conference Wednesday that her office is weighing charges against the teen’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley. She told the AP they seemed to have taken no precautions to prevent their son from accessing it.

“The parents were the only individuals in the position to know the access to weapons,” McDonald said. The gun “seems to have been just freely available to that individual.”

There is no state law that requires gun owners to keep their weapons locked away from children, but McDonald said there is evidence enough to build a case. She told WJR-AM she expects to announce a decision Friday.

“All I can say at this point is those actions on mom and dad’s behalf go far beyond negligence,” she told the news radio station. “We obviously are prosecuting the shooter to the fullest extent. ... There are other individuals who should be held accountable.”

• READ MORE: Oxford School Shooting

The Associated Press contributed to this report.