Prosecutor of first parents charged in son’s school shooting advises Georgia DA to ‘have courage’

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Georgia school shooting’s prosecutor given advice that ‘it’s not easy’ to try parents of mass shooters

The prosecutor who made history in trying the parents who gave mass shooter Ethan Crumbley the gun he used to kill four students in November 2021 gives advice to the Apalachee High School shooting’s DA. Credit: WJBK

The prosecutor who made history arguing the first case against the parents of a child charged with a mass shooting has given a word of advice to the Georgia high school shooting’s prosecutor.

Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald tried the case of the Oxford High School shooter, Ethan Robert Crumbley, in 2021. Crumbley’s parents had given him the gun he would later use to kill four students and injure seven others in November of that year, including a teacher.

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The Oxford High School shooting echoes the Apalachee High School shooting which occurred on Wednesday. 14-year-old alleged shooter Colt Gray’s father, Colin, had given his son the rifle he used to kill four people and injure nine more.

McDonald successfully convicted Jennifer and James Crumbley, Ethan’s parents, in connection with the Oxford High School shooting.

The prosecutor behind the first conviction of the parents of a mass shooter has given the advice saying “it’s not easy” to the prosecutor behind the Apalachee High School shooting case. (WJBK)

“It’s not easy to obtain a conviction on [this set of] facts,” said McDonald to FOX 2 Detroit. “It’s a gross negligence standard for involuntary manslaughter in Michigan, and it shouldn’t be easy. It should be rare – very rare.”

The prosecutor also stated that not everyone agrees that parents should be held accountable for their children’s actions in court.

“It’s not lost on me that there was not a wave of support or acceptance of the charges when they were announced,” McDonald said to FOX 2 Detroit. 

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“But I knew looking at all the evidence that we had, that is not released to the public, I knew that you don’t get to walk away from that sort of egregious behavior when it was reasonably foreseeable that your kid was going to hurt himself or somebody else.”

McDonald’s main advice to the prosecutors involved in the Apalachee shooting trials against Colt and Colin Gray is to “do the right thing and have courage.”

Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga.  (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Of the four who died in Wednesday’s shooting, two were students and two were teachers at Apalachee High School.

Colt Gray is being tried as an adult on four charges of felony murder. 54-year-old father Colin Gray has been charged on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

Georgia is one of 42 states, including Washington, D.C., which hold parents responsible for the criminal actions of their children.

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The office of Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Jasmine is a writer at Fox News Digital and a military spouse based in New Orleans. Stories can be sent to jasmine.baehr@fox.com