DETROIT (AP) – The parents of a teenager charged with killing four students at a Michigan high school didn’t anticipate that he would commit violence and are “devastated” like others in the community, a lawyer said Wednesday in requesting that they be granted a lower bond.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are charged with involuntary manslaughter and have been jailed on $500,000 bond since their arrest on Dec. 4. They’re accused of making a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley and failing to pull him out of school when summoned about his writings before the shooting on Nov. 30.
Defense attorney Shannon Smith acknowledged that Jennifer Crumbley sent a text message to her son that day, telling him “don’t do it.” But Smith said it was a plea for him to not kill himself after the shooting at Oxford High School had already occurred and the gun was missing from home.
Ethan Crumbley, 15, is charged as an adult with murder and other crimes.
“The Crumbleys, like every parent and community member, are devastated by the school shooting,” Smith and co-counsel Mariell Lehman said in a court filing. “The last thing they expected was that a school shooting would take place, or that their son would be responsible.”