Michigan school shooter’s mother guilty of manslaughter

Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of a boy who killed four and injured seven in a school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, is the first parent in the US to be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for failing to stop her son from carrying out the attack.

Prosecutors accused her of being negligent in allowing her son to have a gun, and ignoring warnings signs. A jury found her guilty on Tuesday.

Crumbley's husband, and the boy's father, is facing a separate trial on the same charges.

Their son is serving a life sentence for the November 2021 attack.

The question at the heart of the trial was whether the mother could have foreseen and prevented the deadly crime. Prosecutors showed that both parents bought their son the gun used in the shooting days before the murders.

Prosecutors also presented evidence that Ethan Crumbley had wanted mental health help and complained of hallucinations, but said his parents did not get him treatment. Crumbley said on the stand that she did not think her son had mental health problems.

The morning of the shooting, the parents cut short a school meeting about a disturbing drawing their son had made to go to work and declined to take the then 15-year-old home. He returned to class with his gun in his backpack.

Just hours later, he killed Hana St Juliana, 14, Tate Myre, 16, and Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling, both 17.

Buck Myre, the father of Tate, said: "The people spoke! You can agree or disagree with the people, but this is how the system is supposed to work."