Oxford school shooting: Parents of alleged Michigan school shooter arrested in Detroit after going missing

The parents of Ethan Crumbley, the suspect in the Oxford High School shooting, have been arrested in Detroit, officials say.

James and Jennifer Crumbley were charged Friday with four counts of involuntary manslaughter over the shooting their son, Ethan, is accused of carrying out on Tuesday, when four students were killed and seven others wounded at Oxford High School.

Detroit police said in the early hours of Saturday that 15-year-old Ethan’s parents had been taken into custody.

Officers found the couple at what “looked like a residential building,” Detroit police spokesman Rudy Harper said.

“We arrested them,” Harper said when asked if the parents turned themselves in.

A manhunt had been launched to find the parents after they had been due to give themselves up on Friday afternoon and had not done so, despite their lawyers insisting they had not gone missing and intended to respond to manslaughter charges.

As a result of their absence, police issued a so-called “fugitive warrant” and said they were actively searching for the couple.

Officials said the parents had ignored warning signs and called some of their actions prior to the shooting “egregious”.

The victims of the shooting have been named as Tate Myre, 16, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Hana St Juliana, 14, and Justin Shilling, 17.

Four days before the shooting, Ethan accompanied his father to a gun shop, where James Crumbley bought a 9mm handgun, prosecutors said.

Ethan posted photos of the gun on social media, writing, "Just got my new beauty today." The next day his mother posted that the two of them were "testing out his new Christmas present," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.

Ethan is being held without bail and has been charged as adult on suspicion of carrying out the deadliest US school shooting of 2021 at Oxford High School, about 40 miles (60 km) north of Detroit.