Authorities: Oxford school shooting suspect talked in video about killing students before rampage

An Oxford High School sophomore could face up to life in prison after being charged Wednesday afternoon with first-degree murder, terrorism and related gun crimes in the shooting of his fellow students and a teacher at Oxford High School.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald charged Ethan Crumbley, 15, as an adult. The high school student is accused of killing four people — Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17 — and injuring seven others during the rampage Tuesday.

McDonald said the facts “suggest this was not just an impulsive act," adding “we are considering charges against both parents and we will be making a decision swiftly.”

Judge Nancy Carniak arraigned Crumbley on the charges Wednesday afternoon and denied him bond. She also ruled he be transferred from the county's Children's Village to the Oakland County Jail. Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast said he would be kept "out of sight and sound from adults" at the jail.

Crumbley stood mute and the judge entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

Attorney Scott Kozak, who represented Crumbley on Wednesday but said he won’t be involved in the case moving forward, objected to Crumbley’s transfer to the jail. He said Children’s Village was “more than capable of monitoring him and maintaining the safety of the other residents of that facility.” He asked the judge to wait to decide whether to move Crumbley until after the preliminary examination.

In arguing for his transfer to the jail, Keast said Crumbley is accused of targeting other juveniles.

“The Oakland County Jail is the appropriate location for this individual, judge,” Keast said.

Kozak declined to comment when reached after the hearing.

Lt. Tim Willis of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said at the arraignment that videos were recovered from Crumbley’s cellphone, including “a video made by him the night before the incident wherein he talked about shooting and killing students the next day at Oxford High School. Further, a journal was recovered from Ethan’s backpack also detailing his desire to shoot up a school to include murdering students.”

Willis also said social media posts showed Crumbley had access to a firearm and practiced with a Sig Sauer handgun.

More: Oakland prosecutor weighs charging parents of accused Oxford High shooter

More: Sheriff: Oxford High School shooting suspect had 18 rounds of unused ammunition

Keast told the judge he viewed school surveillance video of the shooting this morning.

“What’s depicted on that video, honestly, judge, I don’t have the words to describe how horrific that was,” said Keast, an Oakland County assistant prosecutor.

He said surveillance video from within the school showed Crumbley enter a bathroom just before 12:51 p.m. carrying a backpack. A minute or two later, he came out without the backpack, "but with a gun in hand,” Keast said.

“At that point, he methodically and deliberately walked down a hallway, aiming the firearm at students and firing,” he said. “After children started running away from the defendant, he continued down the hallway again at a deliberate and methodical pace, pointing and aiming inside classrooms and at students who hadn’t had the opportunity to escape.”

He said the attack continued for four or five minutes and, when deputies arrived, Crumbley set the gun down and surrendered, Keast said.

A review of Crumbley’s social media accounts, cell and other documents show Crumbley planned the shooting and “brought the handgun that day with the intent to murder as many students as he could,” the prosecutor said.

During the hearing, Crumbley quietly sat alone on one side of a table, masked and wearing dark green jail attire. Meanwhile, his attorney participated in the hearing remotely and the judge sat in another courtroom to conduct the proceedings.

Over about 90 minutes, he stated his name and answered the judge’s questions briefly.

"Do you understand all the charges?" Carniak asked him.

"Yes, I do," Crumbley replied.

"Do you understand the right to remain silent?" the judge asked.

"Yes," he said.

His parents called in through a Zoom video chat from their vehicle, briefly turning their camera on. The hearing started about 3:30 p.m. and after several breaks, ended around 5 p.m.

Carniak read aloud the names of the victims in the case and the charges lodged against Crumbley:

• One count of terrorism causing death.

• 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.

More: Oxford High School shooter was 'very clearly trying to kill people,' sheriff says

More: What adults need to know, and how they can help after shootings like Oxford High School

At her news conference, McDonald said she would only mention Crumbley's name once. “We want to keep our focus on the victims of this horrific tragedy,” she said.

McDonald added that "there is a mountain of digital evidence, videotape, social media." She said they are "confident" there was premeditation to commit the crimes “well before the incident.”

McDonald said she had no reason to believe that Crumbley’s mental state would affect his ability to face charges.

She indicated more charges could be coming soon for others, specifically saying they were reviewing charges against Crumbley’s parents.

“We know that owning a gun means securing it properly and locking it and keeping the ammunition separate and not allowing access to other individuals, particularly minors.

"We have to hold individuals accountable who don’t do that.”

McDonald also called for stronger gun laws.

“If the incident yesterday, with four children being murdered and multiple kids being injured is not enough to revisit our gun laws, I don’t know what is,” McDonald said.

What led to Tuesday’s deadly shooting remains unclear; McDonald did not discuss a possible motive in the case Wednesday.

In a news conference Tuesday, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Crumbley’s father had purchased the 9mm Sig Sauer SP 2022 gun used in the shooting just days earlier.

There are multiple social media accounts, including several Instagram accounts, under Ethan Crumbley’s name. Police said investigators are closely looking at all his online activity. One includes a post that appears to have been removed from Instagram of a 9mm Sig Sauer SP in a person’s hand posted several days ago on an account under Crumbley’s name.

The author of the post wrote: “Just got my new beauty today. … Ask any questions I will answer.”

The picture circulating online was screenshotted and has been shared widely among Oxford parents and by other social media users.

Older news stories from the local newspaper, the Oxford Leader, have also emerged showing that, as an eighth grader at Oxford Middle School in 2020, Crumbley was an honor roll student. In 2017, the newspaper quoted him as part of a fifth-grade exhibition for the International Baccalaureate program at Lakeville Elementary. There, he and other students worked on a project about “poverty and hunger.”

“I see people on the streets sometimes that are homeless and hungry, and so I feel like I should take action and help them,” the newspaper quoted Crumbley saying.

Contact Christine MacDonald: cmacdonald@freepress.com or 313-418-2149.

Contact Gina Kaufman: gkaufman@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ReporterGina

Contact Elisha Anderson: eanderson@freepress.com or 313-222-5144. Follow on Twitter: @elishaanderson

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ethan Crumbley, 15, charged in mass school shooting at Oxford High