The prosecutor in Michigan’s 2021 Oakland High School shooting case is noting the similarities between that tragedy and Wednesday’s fatal incident at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald spoke to Newsweek on Friday, and while she says it’s “still too early” to compare then-15-year-old Michigan assassin Ethan Crumbley and alleged Georgia shooter Colt Gray, 14 themselves, their cases are “eerily similar.”
McDonald says both Crumbley’s father, James Crumbley, and Colt Gray’s father Colin Gray, bought their sons the guns used in the school shootings as Christmas gifts.
“There are also allegations that there was some concern over his [Colt Gray’s] mental state and him being in crisis, so that is eerily similar,” she said.
In December 2023, Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting deaths of four classmates, wounding six others, as well as a teacher. Psychologist Colin King later testified that Crumbley was experiencing psychosis, a break from reality, at the time of the shooting and determined he had major depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Crumbley’s parents James and Jennifer Crumbley also became the first parents to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a US mass school shooting. For that, they were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison.
While the Crumbley parents’ convictions made history, McDonald says she is uncomfortable taking a “victory lap” for bringing the charges against them.
“I believe it was the right thing to do,” she told Newsweek. “I think it brings some validation to victims that people are being held accountable, but it doesn’t take away their pain, and it certainly didn’t prevent it from happening again, which is hard. It’s very hard, but if nothing else, maybe, hopefully, it will have people asking the right questions, like, ‘where did this person get the gun?’”
Colt Gray has been charged with murder for killing two students and two teachers and will be tried as an adult. His father, Colin Gray, was also arrested and charged on murder charges related to the shooting. Colin Gray reportedly told investigators that he bought his son an AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting as a Christmas present last year.
When asked about her reaction to reports that Colin Gray gifted his son, who had also been investigated for alleged online threats to shoot up a school just months prior, McDonald told Newsweek, “It felt like I was being punched in the stomach.”
“I’m in contact with victims and Oxford parents who lost their kids. Watching this play out and the trauma brings up feelings again and again and again for people who went through that and will never be completely healed from it.”
“To see this play out in such a similar way, I don’t think words can describe how that makes me feel, or, more importantly, how it makes these parents feel.”
While McDonald did not want to speak for those affected by the Oakland shooting, she said her conversations with them convolved “sadness, grief, and anger” that something so familiar has now happened to others.
In May 2023, the FBI spoke with both Colt and Colin Gray after tips that the then 13-year-old allegedly made threats on Discord to shoot up a middle school the next day. Colin Gray said he had hunting rifles in the home but Colt was not allowed to use them unsupervised. Officials also spoke to Colt Gray, who appeared “calm and reserved.” He stated that he used to have a Discord account but deleted it because it kept getting hacked. Colt Gray claimed someone accused him of threatening to shoot up a school, but he would never say such a thing, not even as a joke.
The user profile name of the Discord account linked to Colt Gray was written in Russian, officials report. Translated to English, the name spells “Lanza,” allegedly referring to Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter Adam Lanza. Colin Gray told officials that his son does not know or speak Russian. Investigators determined that the allegation that Colin Gray or Colt Gray was behind the Discord account could not be substantiated.
Georgia notably does not have a Red Flag Law, a gun law that permits a state court to order the temporary seizure of firearms from a person who they believe may present a danger. McDonald says she has the same message for parents of teens as she has for every other “legal, responsible gun owner.”
“Safely store and secure your firearm,” she said, “That is one of the first things they teach you when you learn about gun safety.”
“I said this a lot during the Crumbley trial, and I stand by it: I don’t believe most parents need this message, but it takes seconds to install a cable lock on a weapon and make it secure so that a minor cannot get ahold of it and use it to commit a crime like murder.”
McDonald continued, “It’s such an easy, accessible way to make sure that our kids are safe and not doing it. We saw that in the Crumbley case, and we’re seeing it now that it can lead to devastating results.”
How Should Cops Respond to Shooting Threats
Newsweek spoke with several experts this week on gun violence prevention about the importance of addressing school shooting threats.
“Law enforcement certainly should be taking threats of school violence seriously and utilizing the tools they have at their disposal to reduce these threats,” Lindsay Nichols, policy director for GIFFORDS Law Center, said. “The legal tools that are available to law enforcement differ dramatically among states.
Dr. Ron Avi Astor, professor at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and School of Education, said once officials determine there is not an immediate threat, they often do not continue to follow up.
Astor also claimed a common goal among shooters is to impose terror on a national level.
“It’s not necessarily always to target one person or just somebody with mental health issues, the way it’s been framed in Congress and [with] other people,” Astor said. “The goal is to commit terror for every child and parent in the United States and they use the media to do that.”
Nichols echoed McDonald’s thoughts on how these preventable tragedies impact those affected for life.
“They shouldn’t happen, and they are traumatizing an entire generation,” Nichols said.
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