A teenage gunman wouldn’t have shot and killed four of his high school classmates in Nov. 2021 if his parents hadn’t made a firearm accessible to him and failed to heed warning signs, a three-judge panel with the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. In a 17-page opinion, a judge ruled that Jennifer and James Crumbley could stand trial for four counts of involuntary manslaughter, writing that their “actions and inactions were inexorably intertwined with” that of their son. The couple have both pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their son, Ethan Crumbley, 16, is staring down a life sentence without parole after pleading guilty to charges of terrorism and murder last October. In its opinion, according to the Detroit Free Press, the court disclosed for the first time that Jennifer Crumbley texted her son 10 minutes before the shooting, telling him, “[You] know you can talk to us and we won’t judge.” Ethan, then 15, replied, “IK thank you. I’m sorry for that. I love you.”
