Murder charges Case filed against father Two parents in Michigan were successfully prosecuted after the 14-year-old boy accused in the Georgia school shooting was killed. James and Jennifer Crumbley were held responsible for a similar tragedy at a school north of Detroit.
the arrest warrant says colin gray Provided a gun to their son knowing he was a danger. Will the public outcry lead to more prosecutions of parents or changes to the law elsewhere?
Experts say it depends on the unique facts of each case. Most states have laws that make people liable for gross negligence in a variety of situations.
The father of a 14-year-old boy accused in the Georgia school shooting has been charged with murder, following the successful prosecution of two parents in Michigan who were accused of a similar tragedy at a school north of Detroit.
Is this a sign of a crackdown on parents who are grossly negligent when it comes to kids and guns? Will the public outcry lead to more prosecutions or changes to the law in other states?
“It's a matter of paying attention to what the child says and does, and what the parent knows about the child's words and actions,” said David Shapiro, a former prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Colin Gray, 54, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder related to the deaths of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. Nine more people were injured.
Gray's son, Colt Gray, is charged with murder. Investigators said he used a “semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle” in the attack.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said the charges against Colin Gray “are directly related to his son's actions and allowing him to possess a weapon.”
Landmarks in Michigan
James and Jennifer Crumbley convicted Earlier this year, they were charged with involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of four students at Oxford High School in 2021. It was the first time parents were held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting in the US. They are serving 10-year prison sentences pending appeal.
The Crumbleys had no idea what son Ethan Crumbley was planning. But prosecutor Karen MacDonald said their son's actions were foreseeable. They were called by the 15-year-old to discuss horrific drawings of guns and blood on a maths assignment and a message, “The thoughts won't stop. Help me. My life is worthless.”
The Crumbleys refused to take him home, but said they would seek counseling. That same day, Ethan Crumbley pulled a gun from his backpack and began shooting, the weapon James Crumbley had purchased as a gift just days earlier. No one — not parents or school staff — had checked the bag.
The parents' “actions and inactions were intimately connected to what their son ultimately did at Oxford,” the Michigan Court of Appeals said in 2023, when allowing this important case to proceed.
The Georgia Affair
Prosecutor Brad Smith declined to publicly disclose details that led him to charge Collin Gray in the Apalachee shooting. But in the arrest warrant, authorities said she provided her son with a gun “with the knowledge that he was a danger to himself and others.”
Smith acknowledged the Michigan case during a news conference Friday and said his case was a first for Georgia.
He said, “I'm not trying to send a message. I'm just trying to use the tools in my arsenal to prosecute people for the crimes they committed.”
Colin Gray was interviewed last year when authorities were investigating his son about a threatening post on social media. According to a transcript, the father said the teen “knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and how not to use them.” Nothing else was asked.
MacDonald, the Michigan prosecutor, said the Georgia shooting and the father's arrest were “literally like a punch in the stomach.”
“I can't believe that the facts in our case, which were so serious, looked so similar,” she told The Associated Press.
More surveillance on parents?
MacDonald said states have laws that set out consequences for gross negligence in a variety of situations. He said it was encouraging that police in Georgia immediately investigated how the gun was obtained.
“I never thought this was a moment that would spark a flood of accusations against the parents or send a message to people,” Macdonald said of the Crumbley case. “Most people don't need that message. It's heartbreaking to see it happen.”
He said it only took a few seconds to lock the gun, which he demonstrated to the jury.
Shapiro, the former New Jersey prosecutor, said all states probably have laws that could be used to hold parents accountable, though much depends on the facts and the prosecutor's views.
“You don't want to allow parents to ignore these kinds of signs that there's something seriously wrong or that there's a serious threat,” he said.
A new law enacted this year in Michigan requires adults to lock up guns in the presence of minors. In Newaygo County, a grandfather pleaded no contest in August to the murder of his 5-year-old grandson. Another boy picked up a loaded gun and fired the shot.
“If people put their guns down, we wouldn't be putting parents behind bars for that reason,” said Chris Brown, president of Brady, a gun violence prevention group. “And we wouldn't be digging so many graves.”
