Washington (AFP) - Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a Michigan father accused of manslaughter over a school mass shooting carried out by his teenage son.
James Crumbley, 47, and his wife Jennifer, 45, are the first parents of a school shooter to face felony manslaughter charges in the United States for the actions of their child.
Jennifer Crumbley was convicted last month of four counts of involuntary manslaughter and is to be sentenced on April 9. She could face up to 15 years in prison.
Her husband faces the same charges.
Their son Ethan Crumbley is serving a life sentence for the November 30, 2021 shooting at Oxford High School on the outskirts of Detroit which left four students dead and seven other people injured.
The Crumbleys bought their then 15-year-old son the 9mm SIG Sauer handgun he used to carry out the attack and were accused of ignoring warnings that he had mental health struggles.
Jennifer Crumbley testified during her trial that her husband bought their son the gun just days before the attack as an early Christmas present, and she took the boy to a shooting range the next day.
She said her husband was responsible for storing the weapon at their home, and it was for her son "to use at the shooting range only."
The mother said she never had reason to believe her son was capable of carrying out such a violent act.
The Crumbleys were summoned to the school on the day of the shooting, after a teacher was "alarmed" by a violent drawing she found on Ethan's desk.
The parents were shown the drawing and advised they needed to get the boy into counseling.
They allegedly resisted taking their son home and he returned to class.
He later entered a bathroom, emerged with the gun which had been concealed in his backpack and fired more than 30 shots.
Amid a huge number of deadly firearms incidents involving young people in the United States, pressure has been mounting to punish parents who make it possible for their children to get weapons.
The father of an Illinois man accused of killing seven people in July 2022 pleaded guilty in November to misdemeanor charges of "reckless conduct" for helping his son obtain the assault rifle used in the mass shooting.
A Virginia woman whose six-year-old son shot and severely wounded his teacher was recently sentenced to two years in prison for felony child neglect and 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to illegally obtaining the firearm.
