A fourth teenager has died from injuries sustained in Tuesday’s horrific shooting rampage at Oxford High School in Michigan allegedly carried out just after lunchtime by a 15-year-old sophomore.
Justin Shilling, 17, died Wednesday morning at McLaren Oakland Hospital, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said. Sheriff Michael Bouchard previously identified the other three victims as 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin.
According to the school district’s website, Shilling was a member of the high school’s boys’ bowling and golf teams. At one point, he co-captained the bowling team. He worked at Anita's Kitchen, a Lebanese restaurant in Lake Orion location.
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“Justin was an exemplary employee, a devoted friend and co-worker, co-captain of his bowling team, and simply a pleasure to be around,” the restaurant said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.”
Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald on Wednesday announced two dozen charges, including terrorism and first-degree murder, against the alleged shooter, Ethan Crumbley. The teen was arrested by a deputy about five minutes after the rampage began at the school located about an hour outside of Detroit.
“This was absolutely premeditated,” McDonald said. “This isn’t even a close call.”
Crumbley was taken into custody without issue and gave up the semi-automatic handgun, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said on Tuesday. Investigators believe he was preparing to gun down more students before he was apprehended. Police found another 15-round clip in the school and believe he may have had a third somewhere.
“He had a loaded firearm and he was coming down the hall,” McCabe said, noting that the boy’s father had purchased the gun, a 9mm Sig Sauer, just four days ago, on Black Friday.
Bouchard said Crumbley and his parents quickly invoked their right to remain silent and retained a lawyer, and are not cooperating with authorities. Authorities executed a search warrant at their home, seizing a phone and other items.
The boy is said to have flaunted a newly purchased handgun on now-deleted social media accounts.
MacDonald said Wednesday her office is weighing charging both of Crumbley’s parents and will be making decisions “swiftly.”
Myre, a junior and a running back on the Oxford High School football team, has been hailed a hero by friends on social media for trying to disarm the teen gunman. Police say the honor student died in a patrol car as a deputy rushed him to a hospital.
“Tate is not just a hero to his fellow students at Oxford high school but a legend, his act of bravery should be remembered forever and passed down through generations, he put his life in danger to try and help the thousands of other students at Oxford High School,” Drake Biggie, one of Myre’s former teammates, wrote in an online petition to rename the school’s Wildcat Stadium after Myre. The petition had 52,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.
St. Juliana, the youngest of the four victims, was a freshman who played for the volleyball team. In an Instagram post, the volleyball team described her as a “beloved teammate.”
Jennifer Graves Mosqueda, Madisyn Baldwin’s grandmother, posted a frantic plea on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon, saying the family couldn’t get in touch with her in the aftermath of the shooting.
After later confirming their worst fears, Mosqueda described Baldwin as a “beautiful, smart, sweet loving girl” who “was tragically taken from us all.” Baldwin’s friends wrote online that she loved to “draw, read, and write” and had already been accepted into several colleges, some of which had offered her full scholarships.
“This horrific day could never have been imagined or planned for,” Mosqueda wrote on a GoFundMe page to cover funeral expenses for Baldwin, the eldest of her daughter’s three children.
Madisyn Baldwin
via GoFundMeSeven more people, including a teacher, were injured in Tuesday’s attack. Among them is a 14-year-old boy in critical condition after being shot in the head, and a 14-year-old girl in critical condition with gunshot injuries to her neck and chest.
“She’s currently on a ventilator after surgery, so it’s looking very tough for this young girl,” Bouchard said.
Ceree Morris, whose two sons were inside the school during the shooting, said the tight-knit, small Michigan town is “in shock.”
“[My sons] knew the victims, all in the same school,” Morris said, noting that her sons were in 12th and 10th grade. “Tate was a huge star football player.”
