School shooter's mother tells court she's not to blame
The mother of a Michigan boy who shot and killed four high-school classmates in 2021 testified in her own defence on Thursday, saying she was not responsible for buying or storing the gun used in the killings. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, took the stand in what is believed to be the first trial to target a parent of a school shooter. She and her husband, James Crumbley, 47 – for whom a separate trial is to start in March – are both charged with involuntary manslaughter. The couple's son, Ethan, who was 15 at the time of the shooting at Oxford High School near Detroit, pleaded guilty in 2022 to two dozen counts, including four of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December. Prosecutors allege that Jennifer and James Crumbley knew their son was mentally in a "downward spiral" and posed a danger to others, yet allowed him to have access to firearms, including the 9mm pistol he used to kill classmates. Asked by her lawyer, Shannon Smith, who was responsible for securely storing firearms in the family home, Jennifer Crumbley replied: "My husband is." "I just didn't feel comfortable being in charge of that, it was more his thing," Crumbley testified. "So I let him handle that." She said James Crumbley kept the 9mm pistol secured in its case with a cable lock, and that the key for that lock was hidden inside one of several decorative beer steins inside the family home. Jennifer Crumbley said she did not know in which stein the key was hidden. Jennifer Crumbley said that while her son had been anxious about getting into college and what he might do with his life, at no point did she think his problems were "to a level where I felt he needed to go see a psychiatrist." Prosecutors will cross-examine Jennifer Crumbley on Friday. (Reuters)