OXFORD, MI - School bells were replaced by police sirens Tuesday after a shooting at Michigan's Oxford High School left four students dead.
Six other students and a teacher were wounded by gunfire, and a 15-year-old suspect is in custody and has been charged as an adult, authorities said.
The attack was the deadliest US school shooting since eight students and two teachers were slain in May 2018 at Texas' Santa Fe High School, according to a CNN tally. There have been 48 shootings this year on K-12 campuses, 32 of them since August 1.
What we know about the suspect
The suspect is Ethan Crumbley, 15, a sophomore at the school, authorities said. He was initially held at a juvenile detention facility and later transferred to the Oakland County Jail.
"We don't have a motive at this point in time," McCabe said Tuesday. "We are still investigating that."
Michigan law prevents police from talking to a juvenile without parental permission, and the suspect's parents have refused that permission and requested a lawyer, Bouchard said.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald said the suspect has been charged with the following:
one count of terrorism causing death
four counts of first-degree murder
seven counts of assault with intent to murder
12 counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
"It is possible there could be additional charges" when the investigation is complete, McDonald said.
McDonald has indicated her office is considering charges against Crumbley's parents stemming from their ownership of a firearm, which McDonald said comes with legal responsibilities like securing the gun properly and ensuring ammunition is kept separate.
"We have to hold individuals accountable who don't do that," she said.
Bouchard said the 15-year-old had not been on law enforcement radar prior to the shooting.
The sheriff's office learned after the shooting that two teachers separately reported concerning behavior from Crumbley starting a day before the attack -- prompting two meetings with him, including one with his parents just hours before the killings, Bouchard said.
The first behavioral report came Monday, when "a teacher in the classroom where he was a student saw and heard something that she felt was disturbing," Bouchard said.
"And they had a counseling session about it with school officials, and a phone call was left with the parents," he said.
Then on Tuesday -- hours before the shooting -- "a different teacher in a different classroom saw some behavior that they felt was concerning, and they brought the child down to an office, had a meeting with school officials, called in the parents, and ultimately it was determined that he could go back into class."
Bouchard declined to detail what the teachers' concerns were. McDonald told CNN's Anderson Cooper Thursday there is a "strong possibility" Crumbley had the gun he is accused of using in his backpack during that meeting with school officials and his parents.
"Unfortunately he was allowed to get back to class, and we now know that he had a weapon with him at that time, and that is simply tragic. And it's my job to hold people accountable who violate the law," McDonald told Cooper.
When asked why Crumbley was allowed to return to class on the day of the shooting, Bouchard said: "That will all be part of the investigation, in terms of what they thought, and why they thought that that was the right step."
"Prior to those two meetings there was no contact or nothing in his file by either concerning behavior or discipline," he said.
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