Oxford High School Shooter's Chilling Journal Seized

McDonald said in a Wednesday press conference that evidence showed Crumbley started planning the attack “well before the incident.”

“This isn’t even a close call,” she said. “This was absolutely premeditated.”

She said her office is weighing charging both of Crumbley’s parents, too. They have declined to speak with investigators. “There is a mountain of digital evidence... we are confident that we can show there was premeditation,” she said.

Crumbley’s half-brother Eli spoke to the Daily Mail on Wednesday, describing his younger sibling as a “happy” and “average” kid who loved the game Minecraft and wanted to be an archaeologist. The two moved together from Florida to Michigan.

“It’s still hard to believe... The Ethan I knew was just a smart boy who just seemed like an average kid. There was nothing that ever stood out to me. He’d never get suspended from school, or detention,” Eli Crumbley, 18, said.

Eli said he had no idea about Ethan’s possible motive.

Bouchard said footage showed Crumbley walking out of a bathroom on Tuesday afternoon before opening fire on victims randomly and at close range.

“Witnesses said he was tugging on doors,” he said. “We know from visible evidence he shot through doors.”

There were “one or two” private security guards working at the school on Tuesday, Bouchard added, and 911 operators fielded more than 100 calls as gunfire erupted and students hid in classrooms and tried to jump out of first-floor windows.

Crumbley surrendered about five minutes after the attack and handed over a semi-automatic handgun purchased by his father just four days ago, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said.

Investigators believe Crumbley was preparing to shoot more students; police found two 15-round clips and believe he may have had a third somewhere.

Crumbley, whose social media accounts were removed by Wednesday morning, was fairly active on YouTube as a young boy. On one account in his father’s name, he posted numerous videos of himself playing games such as Call of Duty, as well as shooting hoops with friends. He is said to have flaunted the newly purchased handgun in since-deleted posts.

Nathan Swanson, a 10th grader who was in some middle school classes with Crumbley, told The Daily Beast that he was “really quiet, he would never talk to people.”

“He wore all black, I believe he was really into hunting,” Swanson said.

No information about a possible motive has yet been released by authorities, although some have speculated that Crumbley was bullied in school. (Bouchard said investigators have not obtained any evidence of that.) Crumbley and his parents quickly invoked their right to remain silent and retained a lawyer after the shooting, McCabe said.

The boy’s father, James Crumbley, 45, has worked as a tech salesman and recently ran into legal trouble in Florida over child support payments. A spokesperson for his last employer, a San Francisco-based company called Monarch that provides GPS tracking to the transportation industry, said Crumbley “briefly worked... as an independent contractor from February to July 2021” and “was terminated for reasons unrelated to this incident.”

Ethan Crumbley’s mother, Jennifer Crumbley, 43, worked as a real estate broker in the Oxford area, but her staff bio has now been taken down. Although James’ online presence demonstrates a preference for the Seattle Seahawks, his posts were not overtly political.

Jennifer, however, in November 2016, penned an open letter to President-Elect Donald Trump, which she posted on her blog.

“Mr. Trump, I actually love that you are a bad public speaker because that showed sincerity, and humility,” she wrote. “You changed your mind, and you said ‘so what.’ You made the famous ‘grab them in the kitty’ comment, did it offend me? No. I say things all the time that people take the wrong way, do I mean them, not always. Do I agree that you should of [sic] shown your tax returns? No. I don’t care what you do or maybe don’t pay in taxes, I think those are personal and if the Gov’t can lock someone up over $10,000 of unpaid taxes and you slipped on by, then that shows the corruption.”

Crumbley went on to tell Trump that she hoped he would “really uncover the politicians for what I believe they really are,” and that he might “shut down Big Pharma, make health care affordable for me and my MIDDLE CLASS family again.” She was in favor of Trump’s long-promised border wall, and noted that she was “not racist” because her grandfather “came straight off the boat in Italy.”

“As a female and a Realtor, thank you for allowing my right to bear arms,” the letter continued. “Allowing me to be protected if I show a home to someone with bad intentions. Thank you for respecting that Amendment.”

She complained about parents at other schools where the “kids come from illegal immigrant parents” and “don’t care about learning.”

It was signed, “A hard working Middle Class Law Abiding Citizen who is sick of getting fricked in the butt and would rather be grabbed by the kitty.”

A resident who lives not far from the family in small-town Oxford told The Daily Beast she spent the afternoon making blue and gold ribbons, the school’s colors, and hanging them around the block. One hung just feet from the Crumbleys’ home, a sage green bungalow with an American flag out front and small festive signs saying “joy” and “hello.”

The sleepy street of modest residences, many of them old homes that have been preserved and adorned with little signs, has a classic small-town feel. Flags dot the front doors of almost every other property and residents have weekly block parties in summer.

“We know each other by name and face, everyone waves and smiles, so this was a complete and total shock,” the resident, who requested anonymity, said. She described the alleged shooter’s family as “good neighbors, there were no red flags,” but said she didn’t know them well.

The senseless shooting left the community reeling, and some restaurants closed in the aftermath to give their employees time to collect themselves.

“If you weren’t hit by a bullet, [it] doesn’t mean you weren’t terrorized that day and will have nightmares about it the rest of your life, whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or a student,” Bouchard said Wednesday.

“Going through that building in the wee hours of this morning, looking at disarray in the classrooms and the backpacks strewn across the floor, that had to have been an absolutely terrorizing moment in anyone’s life,” he added. “I don’t care if you’re an adult or child.”

Explaining why Crumbley is facing terrorism charges, McDonald said, “What about all the children at home right now who can’t eat, can’t sleep, and can’t imagine a world where they ever step back in that school? Those are victims too, and so are their families and the community, and the charge of terrorism reflects that.”

She added that it was time to get serious about gun safety in the United States.

“If the incident yesterday with four children being murdered and multiple kids being injured is not enough to revisit our gun laws, I don’t know what is,” she said.

Bouchard said police are already investigating emerging hoax threats of copycat shootings, calling it an “incredibly disturbing trend.”

Charge document: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21123894/oxford-high-shooting.pdf ( https://files.catbox.moe/vs0lmf.pdf )