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THE Oxford High School shooter penned several chilling diary entries before he conducted a mass shooting two years ago.
Ethan Crumbley, 17, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday afternoon.
He was a sophomore at the Michigan high school, located about 45 miles from Detroit, when he killed Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17, on November 30, 2021.
Seven other people were injured during the school shooting.
Crumbley has admitted that he planned and carried out the killings, writing in his journal: “I will cause the largest school shooting in the state. … I will surrender to the police. I wish to hear the screams of the children as I shoot them.”
During the shooting spree, the teen used a gun purchased by his father as an early Christmas present.
“All I need is my 9mm pistol, which I’m currently begging my dad for,” he wrote in his journal.
Four days before the massacre, on Black Friday, Crumbley’s father, James, took his then-15-year-old son shopping.
Ethan Crumbley gave his father his own money so he could make the purchase.
“I got my gun. It’s an SP2022 SIG Sauer 9mm,” Crumbley wrote the day before the shooting.
“The shooting is tomorrow, I have access to the gun and ammo … the first victim has to be a pretty girl with a future so she can suffer like me.”
Other pieces of key evidence in the case were Crumbley’s own video recordings and text messages.
Prosecutors played one of Crumbley’s audio recordings made the night before the shooting.
“I have worn my mask for too long. I can’t take it,” the teen said in a monotonous voice. “There’s no voices in my head. The voices are me … that’s what people call the demons. There are no demons. I am the demon.”
Crumbley mentioned the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison, “rotting like a tomato.”
Before being sentenced on Friday, Crumbley’s defense attorney begged the judge to have mercy on him, citing the fact that he was only 15 at the time of the murders.
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His attorney argued that Crumbley is a changed person and is capable of being rehabilitated.
However, Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe disagreed and said sternly that Ethan was directly responsible for the killings.
Rowe said that there was a “slim” possibility that Crumbley could be rehabilitated since the teen showed no signs that he wanted to change.
Prosecutor Karen McDonald agreed, believing that Crumbley gave up his right to live freely.
McDonald argued that Crumbley methodically planned the shooting ahead of time, downloaded a map of the school, researched police response times to shootings, and chose to surrender rather than take his life so he could see the suffering he inflicted.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are set to stand trial in January, facing charges of involuntary manslaughter for their alleged roles in the shooting.
School officials have also been sued in several lawsuits as parents claim there wasn’t more done to prevent the shooting.
Multiple teachers had concerns over Crumbley’s behavior in the days and months before the shooting.
On the day of the massacre, Crumbley drew a picture of a gun and a bleeding body on his math homework with the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
Crumbley and his parents were called into the counselor’s office but the teen was able to return to class.
His parents told officials they had to go back to work, failing to inform the school that they bought their son a gun.
Crumbley’s bag was never searched and two hours later, he walked out of a bathroom and started shooting.
“We definitely still want accountability to be held from the parents and from the school because,” said Sandra Arthur Cunningham, a parent.
“They all played (a) part in this horrific, preventable tragedy.”
Crumbley’s parents have argued that they had no way of knowing their son would commit the shooting.