(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/27/23) “I’m going to be the next school shooter,” Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley said in a self-made video the night before he fatally shot four students in November 2021.
Speaking in a monotone voice, Crumbley also describes how he will wear a black jacket and will walk behind someone to “shoot a bullet into their skull.”
“I’m gonna open fire on everyone in the hallway; I will try to hit as many people as I can,” he said. “I will reload and I will find people hiding. I will teach people a lesson of how they are wrong, how they are being brainwashed.”
Crumbley, who also talks about God, said he understands he will go to prison and notes that Michigan doesn’t have a death penalty before adding, “I don’t want to die.”
Those words were some of the most chilling evidence presented today as prosecutors ask an Oakland County judge to sentence Crumbley to life without the possibility of parole for his guilty plea to murdering four students and injuring seven other people.
The hearing continues Friday before Judge Kwame Rowe.
The Shooting
Crumbley was 15 when he exited a school bathroom with a 9mm pistol and began firing at students, killing classmates Tate Myre, 16, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Hana St. Juliana, 14, and Justin Shilling, 17.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Detective Edward Wagrowski emotionally testified how Crumbley is seen on school video – which was shown in court – emerging from the bathroom with his "proud chest” puffed up and as he “held his head high.”
Wagrowski said Crumbley first leveled his 9mm pistol at Phoebe Arthur and her boyfriend, shooting both. Crumbley then turned his gun and fired at St. Juliana and two other students. He said Crumbley fired at yet another student before returning to shoot St. Juliana again.
“At this point she completely falls over and then he runs down the hallway,” the detective said.
Wagrowski testified that Crumbley found Baldwin on the ground in a fetal position, leaning against a wall as if she was “trying to hide the best she could” when Crumbley walked up to her and executed her.
At one point, Crumbley encountered two other girls before shooting Myre, and walking past the teen “without a care.”
The detective said Crumbley’s last victim, Shilling, was shot in the bathroom and another boy ran so fast out of the bathroom that the video shows him only as “a blur.”
The Journals
The prosecution also introduced a number of slides depicting entries from Crumbley’s journal, in which he wrote about his mental breakdown and how he “murdered an entire family of 5 newborne [sic] baby birds.”
“I drowned them and burned them alive,” Crumbley wrote. “I cut one in half and stuck the head of its brother in its stomach. I have completely lost my shit. My grades are falling, my parents hate each other. We have no money. I have zero HELP for my mental problems and it’s causing me to SHOOT UP THE FUKING [sic] SCHOOL.”
In another entry, Crumbley wrote that he “probably would have become a seril [sic] killer” if he had “never thought of the brilliant idea of shooting up the school.”
Crumbley’s journal entries also include drawings of bullets, noting the estimated “kill range” of both .22-caliber and 9mm bullets. He writes that he will “cause the largest school shooting ever in the state” and that he will not kill himself.
Rather, Crumbley wrote, “I will surrender to the police. I wish to hear the screams of the children as I shoot them. All I need is my 9mm pistol which I am currently begging my dad for.” He also wrote that he will “continue shooting people until police breach the building.”
Crumbley’s parents, who are also facing charges, bought him the gun as a Christmas present, and the judge saw video of him with his mother at a shooting range using the gift.
The judge also was shown Crumbley’s drawing that showed his first victim was going to be a “pretty girl with a future so she can suffer just like me.” The drawing is of a girl with a gun pointed at her head.
Crumbley’s goal, arguably, is seen in another journal post that says he will “rain fucking fire down” on the school because he wants to be remembered “through all of HISTORY.”
“I will cause the biggest school shooting in Michigan’s history. I WILL KILL EVERYONE I FUKING [sic] SEE,” he wrote.
The Text Messages
The prosecution also showed several text messages between Crumbley and an unidentified friend, which prosecutors argued showed Crumbley had a homicidal mind.
In one text, Crumbley noted that he wanted to kidnap, torture and rape a classmate before he would “dissect her then take her eyeballs then bury the body.”
In 2021, Crumbley texted about drowning children to look in their eyes and watch as they realized their life was ending. He also said he wanted to pick up “a little kid, about a year old or a little more,” run off with the child, whom he would torture before “throwing them off a cliff.”
Crumbley added: “I will kill any innocent. I don’t care who I kill.”
The Defense
On cross examination and in their opening statement, Crumbley’s attorneys tried to show that his troubled past played a role in the shooting.
Defense attorney Paulette Loftin asked Lt. Timothy Willis about her client’s grades, which were A and B grades in middle school, but fell to C or below in high school.
Loftin also noted that Crumbley’s journal included entries that showed he lacked happiness, hadn’t laughed and felt he was a “burden” to his parents.” She also noted that he wanted help, noting one journal entry that read: “I want help but my parents don’t listen to me.”
In his self-made video, Crumbley talks about the voices in his head.
“There’s no voices in my head. The voices are me. I am the voices. I am arguing for myself back and forth. I have three constant voices,” he said. “… I’m doing whatever the voice is telling me to do and one of them is always coming up on top. That’s what people call the demons. There are no demons. I am the demon. …
“The demon will take over,” Crumbley added, pausing. “There’s nothing I can do about it. … I have the chance to teach the world to become a better place and I have to take that chance. I’ve missed an opportunity in my life and I’m not missing this one. I will try to flee the school … until I get caught.”
