Families involved in the trial have also filed civil lawsuits against the school
From CNN's Aaron Cooper and Omar Jimenez
While the the Michigan school shooter's sentencing in the criminal case is one major thing families are dealing with, they’ve also filed civil lawsuits alleging the school and some of its employees should have done more to stop the shooting from happening in the first place.
“I’m not really one of those guys that’s just gonna go out and sue, sue, sue,” said Craig Shilling, father of 17-year-old victim Justin Shilling. That said, “You have to have accountability. You have to know that everything, every rock was overturned, you looked everywhere, that all the questions got asked and answered,” he added.
An independent report commissioned by the Oxford Board of Education, and released in October, found in part, “that had proper threat assessment guidelines been in place and District threat assessment policy followed, this tragedy was avoidable.”
Ven Johnson, president of Ven Johnson Law in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, is representing a number of the Oxford shooting victims and families, including the Shillings and Gregorys, who have filed state and federal lawsuits.
“What we do in civil law is we go after everybody who’s culpable,” Johnson told CNN. “Their own paid-for report says they screwed up and could have prevented the shooting. And they didn’t. And yet, they’re still here in court, trying to get out of being held responsible.”
A portion of their civil claims center on the morning of the November 2021 shooting. Ethan Crumbley’s teacher found a note on his desk. It had a drawing of a handgun pointed at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,” as another section showed someone who appeared to have been shot twice and the words “blood everywhere,” according to the lawsuit.
That was among the warnings that prompted a meeting with school officials and his parents. His parents resisted the idea of taking him out of school, so he returned to class, according to the civil lawsuit. No one ever checked his backpack.
Hours later, he went into a bathroom with that backpack and came out with a gun, according to criminal prosecutors.
However, in state civil court, a judge sided with the school district, ruling the district was protected by governmental immunity and that the employees were not the “direct cause of the injury or damage.”
“That’s all B.S., if you ask me. I mean, you have to, you have to own up to your mistakes, no matter what they are,” Shilling said.
Meghan Gregory told CNN she won’t be able to rest until anyone who may be found culpable in the school district is held accountable. “I cannot let it go,” she said.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for the school district about the appeals process and for comment about governmental immunity wins they have had in state circuit court, but has not received a response.
13 min ago
One student was a shooting victim and another was a survivor. Here's what happened to them during the shooting
From CNN's Aaron Cooper and Omar Jimenez
In some of 17-year-old Justin Shilling’s final moments, he was hiding in a bathroom with another student, Keegan Gregory, who was texting his family group chat in real time as everything played out.
“IM [sic] HIDING IN THE BATHROOM, OMG, HELP, MOM,” read a series of messages. “He killed him, OMFG” read the next two.
Then for four excruciating minutes, nothing.
“He wasn’t responding, and I started screaming hysterically,” Meghan Gregory, Keegan’s mother, told CNN.
Finally, a text came through.
“I JUST WATCHED HIM KILL SOMEONE,” AND “HE PUT ME UP AGAINST THE WALL” before he texted that he ran and, likely as a result, survived.
“The day he came home, he sat with us and he said, ‘I shouldn’t have left him,’” Gregory said, recalling what her son told her about Justin Shilling, who was killed in the same bathroom where Keegan was hiding.
“There’s nothing he could’ve done for Justin, but he feels this guilt because they were in it together,” she said.
Keegan was 15 at the time of the shooting and for years has gone to therapy to try and process what happened. He’s now moved away from the area to a different school.
“He couldn’t go back into Oxford. He tried. But it was too much for him,” his mother said.
While CNN sat with his mother, Keegan was working on his victim impact statement, something he initially wanted nothing to do with, his mother said. Now, “he feels it’s important that he gets up there.”
“He’s a completely different person” than he used to be, she said. “Having that innocence ripped from him changed him. He doesn’t get the childhood that most kids get.”
21 min ago
Parents of a student killed in Michigan school shooting are planning to make a victim impact statement
From CNN's Aaron Cooper and Omar Jimenez
Ahead of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley's sentencing, parents of one student who was killed said the harshest penalty available in Michigan — a life sentence without the possibility of parole — isn’t enough for them.
Justin Shilling’s parents are among those planning to provide a victim impact statement to the court at the sentencing hearing Friday to talk about how their lives have changed since the shooting.
“I’m very grateful that Friday we do have the final sentencing for the shooter. That part, to be over, is going to be huge for me,” Justin Shilling’s mother, Jill Soave, told CNN. “Being in the courtroom with a person that murdered my son, I don’t want to do that. It’s hard, but I’m going to speak for myself and for Justin,” she said as she fought back tears.
“I’m praying for life without parole,” she said. “Nothing is enough. You know, he gets to live, and my son doesn’t. So I’m never going to feel satisfied as a parent, but that is the maximum punishment allowed by the law. So I am praying that the judge will make that decision.”
“I personally feel that when you do something like that, that you should meet the same fate. You can’t just pull the trigger on somebody and then walk away like nothing happened,” Craig Shilling, Justin’s father, told CNN ahead of Crumbley’s scheduled sentencing.
Both parents describe “primal” feelings of rage against the shooter, and they want their voices to be heard.
Soave said she can feel Justin’s presence still, that it helps her feel a sense of calm. Shilling hopes to keep a similar level of composure.
“That’s all that I can do, try and keep myself composed enough to get through my speech,” he said. “And make sure that I do the best for my son.”
26 min ago
Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley to be sentenced today
From CNN's Aaron Cooper and Omar Jimenez
Ethan Crumbley killed four of his classmates and wounded seven other people at an Oxford, Michigan, high school in 2021.
In October 2022, the gunman pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder and 19 other charges. Prosecutors said at the time they believe this was the first time a mass shooter had ever been convicted of terrorism on state charges for “an act of targeted violence like this.”
The state of Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, but in September 2023 a judge ruled the shooter is eligible for life without parole, despite him being 15 at the time of the shooting. A lesser sentence of life with the potential for parole could also be handed down.
Ethan Crumbley will be sentenced Friday for killing four students and wounding seven others when he opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan in November 2021.
Families of the victims will be given time in court today to read impact statements.
In October 2022, the gunman pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder and 19 other charges. Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, but a judge ruled the shooter is eligible for life without parole, despite him being 15 years old at the time of the shooting.
While the the Michigan school shooter's sentencing in the criminal case is one major thing families are dealing with, they’ve also filed civil lawsuits alleging the school and some of its employees should have done more to stop the shooting from happening in the first place.
“I’m not really one of those guys that’s just gonna go out and sue, sue, sue,” said Craig Shilling, father of 17-year-old victim Justin Shilling. That said, “You have to have accountability. You have to know that everything, every rock was overturned, you looked everywhere, that all the questions got asked and answered,” he added.
An independent report commissioned by the Oxford Board of Education, and released in October, found in part, “that had proper threat assessment guidelines been in place and District threat assessment policy followed, this tragedy was avoidable.”
Ven Johnson, president of Ven Johnson Law in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, is representing a number of the Oxford shooting victims and families, including the Shillings and Gregorys, who have filed state and federal lawsuits.
“What we do in civil law is we go after everybody who’s culpable,” Johnson told CNN. “Their own paid-for report says they screwed up and could have prevented the shooting. And they didn’t. And yet, they’re still here in court, trying to get out of being held responsible.”
A portion of their civil claims center on the morning of the November 2021 shooting. Ethan Crumbley’s teacher found a note on his desk. It had a drawing of a handgun pointed at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,” as another section showed someone who appeared to have been shot twice and the words “blood everywhere,” according to the lawsuit.
That was among the warnings that prompted a meeting with school officials and his parents. His parents resisted the idea of taking him out of school, so he returned to class, according to the civil lawsuit. No one ever checked his backpack.
Hours later, he went into a bathroom with that backpack and came out with a gun, according to criminal prosecutors.
However, in state civil court, a judge sided with the school district, ruling the district was protected by governmental immunity and that the employees were not the “direct cause of the injury or damage.”
“That’s all B.S., if you ask me. I mean, you have to, you have to own up to your mistakes, no matter what they are,” Shilling said.
Meghan Gregory told CNN she won’t be able to rest until anyone who may be found culpable in the school district is held accountable. “I cannot let it go,” she said.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for the school district about the appeals process and for comment about governmental immunity wins they have had in state circuit court, but has not received a response.
In some of 17-year-old Justin Shilling’s final moments, he was hiding in a bathroom with another student, Keegan Gregory, who was texting his family group chat in real time as everything played out.
“IM [sic] HIDING IN THE BATHROOM, OMG, HELP, MOM,” read a series of messages. “He killed him, OMFG” read the next two.
Then for four excruciating minutes, nothing.
“He wasn’t responding, and I started screaming hysterically,” Meghan Gregory, Keegan’s mother, told CNN.
Finally, a text came through.
“I JUST WATCHED HIM KILL SOMEONE,” AND “HE PUT ME UP AGAINST THE WALL” before he texted that he ran and, likely as a result, survived.
“The day he came home, he sat with us and he said, ‘I shouldn’t have left him,’” Gregory said, recalling what her son told her about Justin Shilling, who was killed in the same bathroom where Keegan was hiding.
“There’s nothing he could’ve done for Justin, but he feels this guilt because they were in it together,” she said.
Keegan was 15 at the time of the shooting and for years has gone to therapy to try and process what happened. He’s now moved away from the area to a different school.
“He couldn’t go back into Oxford. He tried. But it was too much for him,” his mother said.
While CNN sat with his mother, Keegan was working on his victim impact statement, something he initially wanted nothing to do with, his mother said. Now, “he feels it’s important that he gets up there.”
“He’s a completely different person” than he used to be, she said. “Having that innocence ripped from him changed him. He doesn’t get the childhood that most kids get.”
Ahead of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley's sentencing, parents of one student who was killed said the harshest penalty available in Michigan — a life sentence without the possibility of parole — isn’t enough for them.
Justin Shilling’s parents are among those planning to provide a victim impact statement to the court at the sentencing hearing Friday to talk about how their lives have changed since the shooting.
“I’m very grateful that Friday we do have the final sentencing for the shooter. That part, to be over, is going to be huge for me,” Justin Shilling’s mother, Jill Soave, told CNN. “Being in the courtroom with a person that murdered my son, I don’t want to do that. It’s hard, but I’m going to speak for myself and for Justin,” she said as she fought back tears.
“I’m praying for life without parole,” she said. “Nothing is enough. You know, he gets to live, and my son doesn’t. So I’m never going to feel satisfied as a parent, but that is the maximum punishment allowed by the law. So I am praying that the judge will make that decision.”
“I personally feel that when you do something like that, that you should meet the same fate. You can’t just pull the trigger on somebody and then walk away like nothing happened,” Craig Shilling, Justin’s father, told CNN ahead of Crumbley’s scheduled sentencing.
Both parents describe “primal” feelings of rage against the shooter, and they want their voices to be heard.
Soave said she can feel Justin’s presence still, that it helps her feel a sense of calm. Shilling hopes to keep a similar level of composure.
“That’s all that I can do, try and keep myself composed enough to get through my speech,” he said. “And make sure that I do the best for my son.”
Ethan Crumbley killed four of his classmates and wounded seven other people at an Oxford, Michigan, high school in 2021.
In October 2022, the gunman pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder and 19 other charges. Prosecutors said at the time they believe this was the first time a mass shooter had ever been convicted of terrorism on state charges for “an act of targeted violence like this.”
The state of Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, but in September 2023 a judge ruled the shooter is eligible for life without parole, despite him being 15 at the time of the shooting. A lesser sentence of life with the potential for parole could also be handed down.
