Photo: JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images
A 15-year-old student at a Michigan high school is being charged as an adult with murder and other crimes in connection with Tuesday’sschool shootingthat left four students dead.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald announced at a Wednesday press conference that Ethan Crumbley, 15, will be charged with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm.
“Charging this person as an adult is necessary to achieve justice and protect the public,” McDonald said at a Wednesday press conference. “Any other option would put all of us at risk of this person because they could be released and still be a threat.”
McDonald did not discuss a motive, but said the facts of the case “suggest this was not just an impulsive act,” citing “a mountain of digital evidence, video tape, [and] social media.”
McDonald said her office is weighing charging both of the suspect’s parents and will make a decision “swiftly.”
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If convicted, the suspect faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. He has not yet been arraigned and McDonald did not provide information about his attorney.
The four victims of the shooting have been identified as Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, and Justin Shilling, 17.
Hana St. Juliana, Tate Myre, Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin.
At the press conference, McDonald pushed for sensible gun-violence prevention, saying, “We have watched school shootings unfold in communities across this country for far too long.”
“If the incident yesterday, with four children being murdered and multiple kids being injured, isn’t enough to revisit our gun laws, I don’t know what is,” she said.
source: people.com
