A pair of Michigan teachers said they expressed concerns about the 15-year-old student who is accused of killing four and wounding seven others a few days before his rampage.
The Oxford High School teachers cited Ethan Crumbley’s behavior as raising red flags, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told CNN’s “New Day” on Thursday.
In addition, school officials had a meeting with Crumbley’s parents the morning of the shootings.
Bouchard said that the teachers’ apprehensions were first reported Monday after “a teacher in the classroom where he was a student saw and heard something that she felt was concerning.”
The student was counseled by school officials who later made a phone call to his parents following the report.
Then on Tuesday, the morning of the shootings, school officials called Crumbley’s parents in shortly after 10 a.m. after “a different teacher in a different classroom saw some behavior that they felt was concerning, and they brought the child down to an office,” Bouchard said.
Crumbley’s parents left the school following the meeting but he was allowed to remain on campus. The sheriff noted that the context of the meeting is still being investigated.
Police received the first frantic 911 call regarding the shootings around 12:51 p.m. on Tuesday, according to records.
“We had no information from the school, but we have since learned that the school did have contact with the student the day before and the day of the shooting for behavior in the classroom that they felt was concerning,’’ Bouchard noted during a Wednesday press conference.
In a subsequent Facebook post, Bouchard’s office wrote that the recent counseling and meetings were the only issues regarding Crumbley’s behavior in his school record.
“Nothing of concern was noted in his school file prior to the first meeting. There are also no documented cases of bullying of the suspect with the school,” the post noted.
Within two hours after the second meeting, Crumbley emerged from a bathroom with a loaded handgun and began shooting fellow students, Bouchard noted on Tuesday.
He said that Crumbley had not left the school campus following his meeting so he either kept the gun in his backpack or had it on his person.
The sheriff added that the gun the student allegedly used to carry out the attacks was purchased over Black Friday by his father.
The Oakland County prosecutor, Karen McDonald, declared that the attack was premeditated. She said there is a “mountain of digital evidence” police and investigators have since recovered pointing to her conclusion.
“I am absolutely sure after reviewing the evidence that it isn’t even a close call,” she said. “It was absolutely premeditated.”
In addition, McDonald said that Crumbley’s parents could also face criminal charges, though it’s not clear what those charges would be.
Meanwhile, Crumbley faces a raft of charges that will likely put him away for the rest of his life: Four counts of first-degree murder; one count of terrorism causing death; seven counts of assault with intent to commit murder; and 12 counts of a minor in possession of a firearm.
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Originally from Indiana, she now calls sunny Florida her home.
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