Mother convicted of involuntary manslaughter after son shoots four people dead at school

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A Michigan mother was convicted of involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday after her son killed four people in a shooting at Oxford High School in 2021. This is the first time that a parent has been convicted of a school shooting by a child.

Jurors had to decide, for the first time, whether a mother’s actions could, legally speaking, have caused her son’s deaths. In this case, this included purchasing a firearm and then ignoring the son’s repeated requests for mental health care.

At the start of Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, which has been going on for several weeks, prosecutor Marc Keast said she did not pull the trigger, but that she is responsible for the deaths. “They didn’t do anything,” Keast said of the parents. “They didn’t do any of the tragically small and easy things that could have avoided this.”

In the coming weeks, the same court will also consider the fate of father James Crumbley.