DETROIT — An Oxford High School teacher alerted a counselor to disturbing behavior by Ethan Crumbley hours before Tuesday's mass shooting.
It was the second time in as many days that a teacher had expressed worry.
School leaders were concerned enough to call his parents to the school, where they demanded that he get counseling and asked that he be removed from class. Ethan's parents resisted, prosecutors say, and left him, perhaps unknowingly, with a loaded gun at the school.
Those were the last warning signs before an attack that ended a month of building worry and fear among students at the 1,800-student school, some of whom feared that a school shooting was imminent, according to parents, school officials and notices from the district.
On at least two occasions earlier in November, school leaders sent messages to families to reassure them the high school was safe, but the assurances did little to stem the fears.
It's not clear that any of the earlier anxieties were a result of the conduct of Ethan, a 15-year-old sophomore now charged with killing four fellow students and wounding seven others, including a teacher. In fact, police and school officials say the earlier memos stemmed from unrelated incidents.
The unidentified teacher on the morning of the attack, however, was so disturbed by a drawing she saw on Crumbley's desk that she snapped a photo as evidence just hours before he is accused of opening fire inside the school.
According to authorities, on a piece of paper in front of Crumbley on Tuesday morning, the teacher saw the words: "the thoughts won't stop, help me" and a drawing of a bullet and the phrase: "blood everywhere."
There was a sketch of a person shot twice and bleeding, a laughing emoji and the final lines: “my life is useless” and “the world is dead.”
Additional details of what happened at Oxford High School the day of the mass shooting were revealed on Friday by Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, who announced involuntary manslaughter charges against Crumbley's parents.
Jennifer and James Crumbley were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17.
The counselor — after seeing the teacher's screenshot — called Ethan Crumbley's parents to the high school that day and had him bring his backpack for a meeting at the school office, McDonald said.
There, the teen produced the note that had been scribbled over in several places in an attempt to hide its contents, McDonald said.
In the meeting — it's not clear which school officials attended — his parents were shown the drawings and were told they were required to get their son into counseling within 48 hours. Jennifer and James Crumbley were asked to remove Ethan from the school, a request they resisted. They left without him.
Ethan remained in the building and was allowed to return to class, prosecutors allege, with a semi-automatic 9 mm handgun hidden in his backpack, with which he would soon begin a rampage across the school, gunning down classmates and a teacher and leaving a trail of blood, empty shell casings, shattered windows and bullet-ridden doors.
McDonald was asked at a press briefing why Ethan was allowed to stay in school.
“I’m not going to give you a political answer, and I’m not going to cover for anybody,” McDonald said. “But, of course, he should not have been allowed to go back to that class. I believe that is a universal position. I’m not going to chastise or attack.”
Persistent chatter
Some students and parents say they already were worried about safety inside Oxford High School in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's mass shooting as persistent chatter of possible threats became unnerving.
One parent told The News that on Nov. 18, fear a shooting was planned was circulating in the high school.
At 1:20 p.m. that day, the parent's son sent a text to his dad: “They’re saying there’s going to be a shooting tomorrow at high school, dad. So can you be (sic) the ready should something happen, dad? I’m scared.”
The parent asked not to be identified because he said law enforcement asked him not to discuss it.
The father urged his son to report what he was hearing to the school resource officer, the father told The News. It’s not clear if the student reported his concerns at the time. The father also said he told the FBI on Tuesday, which FBI spokeswoman Mara Schneider declined to confirm or deny.
Another parent, Robin Redding, told the Associated Press her 12th-grade son, Treshan Bryant, stayed home from the high school on Tuesday, the day of the tragedy, because he had heard threats that there could be a shooting.
“This couldn’t be just random,” she said.
Bryant said her son texted several younger cousins in the morning, and they said they didn’t want to go to school, and he got a bad feeling. He asked his mom if he could do his assignments online.
Bryant said he had heard vague threats “for a long time now” about plans for a shooting at the school.
Parents and students said anxieties had been running high at the school despite two memos attempting to reassure parents that rumors of threats of violence were unfounded.
School officials first sent emails to parents and posted a memo on Nov. 4, saying "there is no present threat of danger at Oxford High School" after graffiti was sprayed in red paint on the cement outside the school's pool entrance doors and on several outer windows. The student involved — who was recorded on video and later interviewed by police — also threw the head of a deer into a locked courtyard while on the roof of the school, school officials said.
"There was no blood from the animal found on campus or on the roof, as earlier reported on social media," Oxford High School Principal Steve Wolf said. "At this time, this is a police investigation and we can assure our students, staff and parents the suspect is not a threat to our building."
With the help of police, the school identified and located the suspect, the memo read. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the incident had no connection to Crumbley or Tuesday's shooting but did not release additional details, such as who the suspect was or whether they had been charged or admitted guilt.
Eight days later, high school administrators again informed parents they were aware of additional rumors spreading throughout the high school, but they did not disclose further details.
"Some rumors have evolved from an incident last week," read a statement from Oxford High School's administration on Nov. 12, referencing the graffiti, "while others do not appear to have any connection. Student interpretations of social media posts and false information have exacerbated the overall concern. We want our parents and students to know there has been no threat to our building nor our students."
To further ease tension, school officials in that message reminded students and parents about the numerous "highly-trained professionals" who work to keep the building safe and secure, including counselors, social workers, two security guards and an Oakland County Sheriff's Office school resource officer assigned to the school district.
School officials in Oxford, including Superintendent Tim Throne and members of the Board of Education and the district's spokesperson, did not respond to repeated requests from The News for interviews about the growing anxieties before the mass shooting.
On Thursday, Bouchard reiterated that the Oakland County Sheriff's Office had no information before the shooting about Ethan Crumbley or alleged threats of an imminent shooting at the school.
Bouchard learned that school officials had met with Crumbley on Monday, after a teacher observed Crumbley searching for ammunition on his phone at school.
The school reached out to Jennifer Crumbley by email and left a phone message but never heard back that day.
Jennifer Crumbley later texted her son: "Lol, I'm not mad. You have to learn not to get caught," Oakland County Sheriff's Office Lt. Tim Willis testified in a hearing Friday.
The next morning, the teen and his parents met with school leaders over the drawing found on Ethan's desk. But when the parents resisted taking Ethan home for the day, he was allowed to return to class with his backpack, according to authorities and school officials. The parents did not search his backpack nor did they ask Ethan about the whereabouts of the gun they had purchased for him on Nov. 26, prosecutors said.
Ethan is charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted as charged.
Asked whether the school district had received tips about threats made by Crumbley or a planned shooting ahead of Tuesday's rampage, Bouchard said: "I am not aware of anybody knowing about this particular threat before the incident actually occurred, like a credible threat that 'there will be a shooting' or 'this person is involved.' That specific information did not come to the school before this happened."
Bouchard said he thinks parents who say they kept their kids home from school on Tuesday — the day of the shooting — did so based on earlier incidents at the school that were addressed in the emails to parents.
At a later press conference, Bouchard addressed rumors that have persisted since the shooting, including the incidents addressed by school officials in last month's emails.
"There were multiple threats that were investigated in the Oxford and Oakland County area prior to this event that people are convoluting into this event," Bouchard said. "Those were investigated and cleared as noncredible and are not related.
"... None of those have anything to do with this case or this incident or this perpetrator."
'No discipline was warranted'
Late Thursday evening Oxford Superintendent Tim Throne made his first extensive public statement, maintaining no discipline was in order for Ethan Crumbley prior to the shooting.
Throne, who has declined interviews or to answer questions sent via email, addressed the circumstances in a YouTube video.
"No discipline was warranted," Throne said near the end of the nearly 13-minute video. "There are no discipline records at the high school. Yes, this student did have contact with our front office, and yes, his parents were on campus Nov. 30. I will take any and all questions at a later time. But that’s not now."
What has become clear since the shooting on Tuesday is that police and prosecutors believe they have uncovered evidence that Ethan planned an attack, talking the night before the incident about shooting and killing students the next day at his school.
Crumbley's cell phone, obtained by authorities through a search warrant, depicted a video made by him the night before the incident in which he talked about his plans, Willis testified in a court hearing Wednesday.
What's not yet clear is whether Crumbley shared any of his thoughts or plans with others, or if other onlookers viewed disturbing drawings or heard signs that may have contributed to the growing anxieties inside Oxford High School.
McDonald said the case against Crumbley contains a mountain of digital evidence, proof his crime was premeditated, she added.
The evidence includes social media and video, McDonald said.
"We charged four counts of first-degree murder which requires premeditation and I am absolutely sure, after reviewing the evidence, it isn’t even a close call. It was premeditated,” McDonald said.
Asked how long the shooting was planned, McDonald drew a long breath. Her eyes became misty. She steeled herself.
Then she said: “Long enough.”
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(Detroit News staff writer George Hunter contributed to this story.)
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