SYSTEMIC FAILURE: Oxford school knew Ethan Crumbley brought bullets to class day BEFORE shooting
OXFORD, MICHIGAN: A lawsuit has claimed that Ethan Crumbley showed up at school with ammo a day before he shot up Oxford High School. Crumbley reportedly brought bullets to class and displayed them, and also researched ammunition on his mobile phone the same day, a revised lawsuit claims. The suit claims that the school officials knew about the bullets, and also about a tweet he posted hours later, saying, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. See you tomorrow Oxford.”
"The school was on alert about Ethan," attorney Nora Hanna said to the Free Press. "There are a million things that they could have done." The suit also claims that nearly three weeks before he shot up the school, Crumbley brought a bird's head to school in a mason jar filled with yellow liquid. He left it on top of a toilet paper dispenser in the boy's bathroom.
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"(The principal) excited Ethan Crumbley by pulling him out of class, warning him that Child Protective Services might be called, thereby, encouraging Crumbley to accelerate his timetable for murder," the lawsuit states. The suit added that removing him from the class and forcing him to sit for an hour-and-a-half "further escalated" his plan. The lawsuit said that despite threatening to report Ethan Crumbley to CPS, the school never really did so.
Among several other disturbing behaviors that Ethan Crumbley's parents ignored, the Oxford shooter texted his mother about “demons” and “ghosts". The 15-year-old also filmed himself torturing animals, made Molotov cocktails at home, and drew a sketch of himself shooting up his school in his journal, Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast said in court.
According to Keast, Ethan sent these texts to his mother in March multiple times, and sometimes Jennifer Crumbley would take hours to reply. Ethan also wrote about demons in his journal. “The evidence shows a 15-year-old who has repeatedly informed his parent that he was hallucinating, the same 15-year-old who continuously demonstrated tendencies that were worrisome – all able to be found by his parents,” Keast said.
Lt Tim Willis of the Oakland County Sheriff’s office read from Crumbley’s indictment and said that the videos were recorded the night before the school shooting on November 30, roughly an hour north of Detroit. Authorities have also allegedly discovered a journal with entries that mentioned shooting and killing students. Crumbley, who is being tried as an adult, pleaded not guilty during the arraignment. The Oakland County prosecutor has said that there was a "mountain" of evidence showing that the attack was premeditated and not impulsive.
Unconfirmed screenshots also fueled rumors about the incident. A video has been doing the rounds on social media, allegedly showing the shooter throwing a Molotov cocktail in his backyard. Social media is claiming that despite the signs, school authorities did not take the required steps. The school has been slammed for not doing enough to protect the students despite prior warnings.
Internet sleuths have discovered that the suspect had posted creepy pictures on his Instagram account, where he began an alleged countdown before carrying out the shooting, terming it 'Return of The Devil'. The shooting survivors claimed that the suspect had specific targets whom he attacked first, but it is unclear how the suspect and the victims were connected.