Michigan teen’s parents guilty for his mass shooting. Why not Chiefs rally suspects’? | Opinion
Michigan teen Ethan Crumbley sits in prison with a life sentence for killing four of his classmates in a 2021 school shooting. His parents will soon join him as they await sentencing after their convictions earlier this year on four manslaughter charges apiece for their son’s high school bloodbath.
Wait, what? A 15-year-old boy opened fire and now parents have been convicted of the killings? This is the first time. But maybe it is an idea we should import to Kansas and Missouri in the wake of the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally shootings, where multiple teens and some not much older than teens opened fire in a teeming crowd because some of them didn’t like the way they were looking at each other.
Three minors and three (barely) adults face charges related to guns this Valentine’s Day, though judging from what’s been publicly released about the charges, not all pulled the trigger.
I think it is time for police and prosecutors to start asking what the real adults — the moms and too often not dads — knew about the armory that was being carried by young fans planning to celebrate a football victory, but worried they might need to join in a firefight at the festivities.
In Michigan, James and Jennifer Crumbley were convicted for their roles in the murder — not just for what they did, but for what they didn’t do. Dad bought the gun with his son and mom took him to a firing range so he could learn how to use it. They were also convicted for what they didn’t do: Secure the gun and tell authorities about it when Ethan drew a gun and a dead body on his math paper. There was also evidence in the boy’s texts and diaries that his parents didn’t take his requests for psychiatric help seriously.
For the six boys facing charges in the Kansas City parade shooting, which injured dozens, half children, and killed one, police should start asking parents the obvious questions.
Did you know your kid had a firearm? Why didn’t you take it away and secure it?
Did you know your kid was taking a firearm to a public event where thousands would be celebrating and something could go wrong? Why didn’t you tell the authorities?
Did you know your kid was a potentially violent threat to others? Why didn’t you get him the help he needed?
If you were afraid to confront your son about his weaponry, why didn’t you ask for help?
If you didn’t know your kid had a gun and was planning to bring it to a public event, why not? Was it because you had dropped out of his life?
Kansas City has a gun violence problem, but it is not just a matter of deadly equipment. The problem is bloodthirsty kids or, putting the boys’ decisions to carry a gun into a crowd and then, in some cases open fire, in the best possible light. The problem is kids with reckless indifference to the possibility of taking another person’s life. We’re lucky the death toll was one and not 10 or a lot more.
Mayor Quinton Lucas and other Kansas City leaders have plans to hold meetings and to invoke all the best-researched ideas as they address the violence that is plaguing this city. But that’s not enough. The one word I haven’t seen on the table is “parents.” With 246 dead last year and the glaring fact that so many of the killers were teens and young men barely out of their teens, something new needs to be done.
I don’t know what it is like to look at your 6-year-old lying in a hospital bed with a bullet wound he got at a party. I hope I never do. But if we don’t want more people to experience it, it is time for the parents of the predators among us to be accountable.
David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent. Follow him on X: @DavidMastio
