The mother of a teenage boy who fatally shot four students at his Michigan high school testified on Thursday in her high-profile involuntary manslaughter trial, news agency AFP reported. Jennifer Crumbley and her spouse, James, are the first parents of a school shooter to face criminal charges in the United States for their child's crimes, according to the officials. Ethan Crumbley, their 17-year-old son, is serving a life sentence for the November 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School, which killed four kids between the ages of 14 and 17, and injured six students and one teacher.
The Crumbleys are accused of purchasing their son the 9mm SIG Sauer weapon he used to carry out the shooting while disregarding signs that he had mental health issues.
James Crumbley will be tried separately in March.
Jennifer Crumbley testified that her husband bought the rifle for their son as an early Christmas present a few days before the attack, and she brought him to the shooting range the next day.
She stated that her husband was in charge of storing the firearm at their home, and it was intended for her son "to use at the shooting range only."
Crumbley said before the jury that she had never discussed discipline concerns with her son's instructors, despite the fact that he routinely failed to turn in homework assignments and had low grades.
She claimed Ethan was concerned about what he would do after high school, "but not to the point where I felt he needed to see a psychiatrist or mental health professional," AFP reported.
When questioned about her relationship, Crumbley stated: "I thought we were pretty close. We would talk. We did a lot of things together. I trusted him and I felt like I had an open door and he could come to me about anything."
She stated that she never had any reason to believe that her child was capable of conducting such a heinous crime.
"As a parent, you spend your whole life trying to protect your child from other dangers," Crumbley was quoted by AFP in its report. "You never would think you have to protect your child from harming somebody else,” she added. "That was the hardest thing I had to stomach, that my child hurt other people," she said. "I wish he would have killed us instead."