Officials suggest probe into Michigan school's actions before mass shooting

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Sunday offered to "conduct a full and comprehensive review" of actions taken at Oxford High School before last week's shooting that claimed four lives.

Oxford Community Schools Superintendent Tim Throne said in an open letter to the community on Saturday that he'd enlist a third-party investigator to determine if campus personnel could have done more to prevent Tuesday's deadly attack, allegedly carried out by 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley using a handgun officials said was bought by his father days earlier.

Michigan's top prosecutor suggested her state investigators would be the best equipped to take on that probe.

"We have reached out to the attorney for the Oxford Community School District and have offered the services of the Michigan (Department) of Attorney General to conduct a full and comprehensive review of the 11/30/21 shooting and the events leading up to it," Nessel said in a statement.

"Our attorneys and special agents are uniquely qualified to perform an investigation of this magnitude and are prepared to perform an extensive investigation and inquiry to answer the many questions the community has regarding this tragedy."

A district spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.

The suspect and his parents had been called into the school office on the day of the crime, after a teacher found Ethan Crumbley with drawings that seemed to depict a gun and shooting scene, prosecutors said.

Parents James and Jennifer Crumbley declined to take their son home from school and he was returned to class, officials have said.

The suspect might have had the gun, allegedly purchased by his father, in his backpack when they met with school officials on Tuesday.

“We don’t know exactly if that weapon was in his bag, where it was, we just know it was in the school and he had access to it,” Oakland County Karen McDonald told CNN on Monday.

Asked if school personnel might be prosecuted for failing to find the weapon, McDonald replied: “We haven’t ruled out charging anyone.”

Ethan Crumbley was charged Wednesday with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of terrorism causing death, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, and Justin Shilling, 17, were all killed in the attack. Seven other people, including a teacher, were wounded.

A 14-year-old girl with wounds to the neck and chest was released Sunday from Hurley Medical Center in Flint, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday in a statement. A 17-year-old girl, the last of the injured students still in the hospital, was stable at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital, according to the agency.

The suspect's parents were arrested early Saturday on four counts of involuntary manslaughter after being found “hiding” in what was described as an art studio in a building near downtown Detroit, the city's police chief said.

Officials said detectives on Monday planned to interview Andrzej Sikora, a 65-year-old Detroit artist who may have been involved in the “disappearance” of the parents.

“We will vigorously investigate the totality of the situation so a determination can be made if there is any criminality or obstruction of justice involved,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a statement.

The Crumbleys and their son are all being held in isolation at the Oakland County Jail, the sheriff’s office said.

Bouchard said Saturday that the three are checked “multiple times an hour.”

“There is no indication that any of them were suicidal but out of an abundance of caution, our amazing corrections team is doing suicide watches on all three of them.”