Ethan Crumbley: Everything we know about the Michigan school shooting suspect
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A 15-year-old sophomore has been taken into custody after four students were killed and at least eight others injured in a mass shooting at a suburban high school in Michigan on Tuesday.
The suspected shooter, teenager Ethan Crumbley, was apprehended by police following the incident at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, a community of 22,000 people 30 miles north of Detroit, and a semi-automatic 9mm Sig Sauer handgun was seized.
Oakland County undersheriff Mike McCabe said the suspect had not offered any resistance when he was arrested, which he said took place within five minutes of the first 911 call being received, simply putting his hands on his head and surrendering.
A motive for the attack has not yet been established, according to the undersheriff, as the teen invoked his right to an attorney and declined to speak to officers, apparently on the instruction of his parents.
On Wednesday, Mr Crumbley appeared virtually in court to face the charges and plead not guilty. Asked by the judge if he understood the charges, he calmly said: “Yes, I do.”
The teenager was charged as an adult with one count of terrorism, 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.
Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said the charges stemmed from “undeniable” evidence that the attack was premeditated.
Prosecutors told the judge that CCTV footage from the school showed Mr Crumbley “methodically and deliberately” firing on his fellow students.
The judge accepted prosecutors’ request to deny him bail and transfer him out of juvenile detention to the county jail because he could pose a threat to other minor prisoners.
Mr McCabe said investigators planned to examine Mr Crumbley’s smartphone and social media posts as they search for clues pointing to a possible motive and that they have already executed a search warrant on his house, retrieving several items, notably a cache of weapons including long guns.
It has also emerged that Mr Crumbley wrote on Instagram just hours before he started shooting: “Now I become death - destroyer of worlds - see you tomorrow Oxford.”
His journal also reportedly contains notes about his fantasies of doing violence to his contemporaries at school.
Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Oakland County sheriff Michael Bouchard said: “It’s clear that he came out with the intent to kill people. He was shooting people at close range, oftentimes towards the head and chest... It’s just absolutely coldhearted murders.”
Mr Bouchard said investigators were examining further writings belonging to the shooter obtained in the middle of the night that contain “some of his thoughts”.
“We can’t get the motive from the suspect that we have in custody, but we think we’ve got a path to get a lot of supportive information as to how and why this occurred,” he said.
Sheriff Bouchard said at the time that he was unaware of any previous run-ins with law enforcement by the suspect, adding that investigators had so far seen nothing to suggest a history of disciplinary problems.
However, it has since been reported that the teen and his parents had a meeting with his teachers who were concerned about his behaviour and that Mr Crumbley had been part of another meeting without them a day earlier.
Sheriff Bouchard added that forensic technicians were still collecting evidence from the crime scene, while detectives were gathering video footage from security cameras mounted around the school and interviewing witnesses and those acquainted with the suspect.
The shooter is understood to have emerged from one of the school’s bathrooms at approximately 12.51pm bearing the pistol, which had been hidden in his backpack and was purchased by his father on Black Friday four days earlier.
Chilling footage subsequently emerging from the incident shows him firing off between 15 and 20 shots from multiple magazines as he stalks the school’s halls.
At one point, he is seen banging on a door and claiming to be a police officer in a bid to dupe people into coming out into the corridor, ordering someone to: “Just open the door bro.”
His fellow students are meanwhile seen running for cover and barring classroom doors with chairs.
Robin Redding, a mother of one of the teenagers at the school, caused a stir in the aftermath of the incident when she told the Associated Press: “This couldn’t be just random. Kids just, like they’re just mad at each other at this school.”
Her remark inspired rumours that the suspect might have issued overt threats in advance of his rampage but this was denied by Sheriff Bouchard, who said: “There was no prior information shared with the Sheriff’s Office or the School Resource Officer before the incident.”
Mr Crumbley’s own mother, Jennifer Crumbley, once wrote an open letter to Donald Trump, it has since emerged, in which she expressed pro-gun sentiments and thanked him for safeguarding her right to own firearms.
“As a female and a Realtor, thank you for allowing my right to bear arms. Allowing me to be protected if I show a home to someone with bad intentions. Thank you for respecting that Amendment,” she posted on her blog in November 2016.
Additional reporting by agencies
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