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Ethan Crumbley's parents knew about gun drawing on Maths homework, prosecution alleges

He also scribbled messages like 'My life is useless,' 'Blood everywhere' and 'The thoughts won't stop, help me', the prosecutor's office revealed

The 15-year-old student, Ethan Crumbey, who is accused of killing four of his fellow students at Oxford High School in Michigan and injuring a number of others when he opened fire inside the premises on November 30, was 'intent on violence,' prosecutors alleged on Thursday, December 23. 

In what was one of the most troubling piece of evidence, Crumbley had drawn a gun on a math homework sheet with the messages: 'My life is useless,' 'Blood everywhere' and 'The thoughts won't stop, help me', the prosecutor's office revealed. It is part of their attempt to paint his parents, James and Jennifer, both 43, as neglectful despite being aware of Ethan's potential for violence. The prosecutors are alleging that Ethan's mother was busy carrying on an affair to pay much heed to her son's mental health issues and even texted her boyfriend about the murder weapon. In fact, both Jennifer and James were shown messages and drawings that their son drew by the school counselors just hours before he fatally shot four and injured seven others in the fatal shool shooting.

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Pattern of ignorance

The prosecutors are accusing the Crumbleys of ignoring their son's spiral into depression and other violent behavior for the past six months, suggesting that their teenager needed help. On the morning of the shooting, Ethan had allegedly drawn the messages and a teacher had not only discovered them, but also proceeded to take a screenshot before getting in touch with a counselor. The simplest of actions that could have prevented the massacre in the high school were not taken by the Ethan's parents, the prosecutors claimed in court documents. 

Prosecutors also pointed out that the parents had recently bought Ethan a gun despite knowing that he was strugging with his mental health. The Crumbleys "knew their son was depressed, that he was fascinated with guns... that he had been researching ammunition while at a school and that he was seen watching violent videos of shootings that morning," prosecutors said. Nevertheles, James and Jennifer purchased the gun for Ethan as an early Christmas present anyway. "All they had to do was tell the school that they had recently purchased a gun for their son, asked him where the gun was, opened his backpack or just take him home," the prosecution alleges. "Defendants were in a better position than anyone else in the world to prevent this tragedy, but they failed to do so."

In the filing, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald revealed two versions of the photo. In the second version, Ethan allegedly altered his sketch by crossing out the disturbing messages and adding ones like "video game this is," "we're all friends here," "harmless act," "I love my life so much!!!!" and "OHS rocks!" Jennifer alegedly had told her boyfriend on the day of the shooting that the reported murder weapon had been in her car. McDonald's filings were part of a strategy to keep Ethan's parents in jail on $500,000 bond.