UK teen pretended to be Ethan Crumbley in threatening call, police say

Schools in Oakland County, including Oxford, Cranbrook, Brandon and Lake Orion, received calls threatening violence on April 8. The suspect is a 16-year-old boy from the United Kingdom, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said in a Thursday news release.

In the call to Oxford High School, the suspect pretended to be Ethan Crumbley, the former student on trial for the Nov. 30 school shooting that killed four and injured seven. The suspect used a British accent, the sheriff's office said, and claimed he was depressed and was going to “shoot up the school” and “finish” the job he started.

Crumbley is currently in Oakland County Jail, without bond, awaiting trial.

The suspect was arrested at his U.K. home on April 13, and has since been released to his parents while the investigation continues, the release said.

“As I said at the time, we were going to be aggressive to hold perpetrators accountable,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. “In conjunction with our law enforcement partners and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and police officials from the United Kingdom, that has in fact occurred and a suspect has been arrested. Let this serve as a message to anyone who would threaten our schools or any other institution in Oakland County. We will come for you.”

More: Tentative trial date set for Oxford shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley

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The teen is suspected of 37 other threatening calls made to businesses and schools nationwide, the release said. The investigation ultimately involved 16 different law enforcement agencies, including Homeland Security and police in the U.K.

Initially, law enforcement believed the phone calls were coming from Florida and New York.

In the call to a school in Brandon, the suspect allegedly said there was a man in a black pickup truck in the parking lot with an AR-15 gun who was going to shoot up the school, the release said.

The sheriff's office said that, In multiple of the teen's calls, "juveniles" could be heard laughing in the background.

Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: UK teen pretended to be Ethan Crumbley in prank call, police say