Parents of Michigan school shooting suspect deny allegations
A Michigan judge set $500,000 bail for each of the parents of a teenager accused of murdering four schoolmates after authorities arrested the couple in a stalking that attracted a lot of attention.
In a video call from the prison, James and Jennifer Crumbley pleaded not guilty to four counts of manslaughter.
Oakland County Attorney Karen McDonald told the hearing that the Crumbleys withdrew $4,000 from an ATM while authorities were looking for them and were still considered a risk of escape.
"These are not people we can be sure will return to court alone," he said.
Authorities began looking for the couple after Oakland County prosecutors announced Friday that they would be charged with murder in connection with the campus massacre. Prosecutors said the Crumbleys bought the gun for their son as a Christmas present and ignored warning signs, including the day of the murders.
Judge Julie Nicholson said today that she was "somewhat concerned about the risk of flight" posed by the couple, after they failed to appear yesterday to answer the charges.
They were taken into custody in what "appeared to be a residential building," Detroit police spokesman Rudy Harper said in the early hours of today.
"We arrested them," Harper said, when asked whether his parents had turned themselves in, adding that they were trying to escape when they were arrested.
Detroit Police Chief James White said at a news conference that the couple had not broken into the building where they were detained, but that someone had let them in.
The couple's 15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley, is being held without bail and has been denounced as an adult, suspected of having carried out the most deadly massacre in a US school in 2021 on Tuesday at Oxford High School, about 60 miles north of Detroit.
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
