The parents of the teenager who opened fire at a high school in the northern United States on Tuesday, killing four, were charged with manslaughter on Friday, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
15-year-old Ethan Crumbley "is the one who walked into high school and pulled the trigger" but "other people contributed to this event and I intend to hold them to account", she said as she announced the lawsuits against James and Jennifer Crumbley.
James Crumbley had bought the semi-automatic pistol used by his son a few days earlier.
Four high school students in Oxford, a small town in Michigan, died and six others were injured, along with a teacher.
The shooter was arrested at the scene.
He was charged with "terrorist act" and "assassinations", and faces life imprisonment because he is being prosecuted as if he were of legal age.
Trauma
His motives remain a mystery because he has not explained himself since his arrest and has chosen to remain silent during his appearance.
He pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.
The shooting, perpetrated in a school in Oxford, deeply shocked this small town in the state of Michigan, north of the metropolis of Detroit.
Many high school students took part in a vigil of meditation on Tuesday evening. The shooter, carrying a Sig Sauer caliber 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, bought four days earlier by his father, opened fire shortly before 1 p.m. local time, methodically progressing through the school and shooting in particular on the doors of the classes where the students had barricaded themselves. He fired at least 30 bullets. "He clearly came to kill people," Sheriff Bouchard summed up on CNN.
The deceased adolescents are two girls aged 14 and 17 and two boys aged 16 and 17.
Three young victims remained hospitalized Wednesday, including a 14-year-old girl in critical condition.
Three other students and a 47-year-old teacher were able to return home.
Sheriff Bouchard estimated Wednesday that the shooter had fired at random, without choosing previously identified victims.
"Worrisome behavior"
He would have brought the gun without being worried. Oxford High School does not have a metal detector gantry, as is often seen in the United States. The sheriff denied that his services were aware of threats targeting the school and the establishment had not received a report that the student had been the victim of harassment. He has no criminal record but had been summoned two days in a row, Monday and Tuesday, by high school officials for "worrying behavior," said Michael Bouchard.
Her parents were attending the second meeting on Tuesday morning.
A few hours later, he came out of the bathroom, pistol in hand, and paced the hallways, as the terrified students hid in the classrooms.
"We know that he tried to enter the rooms, that he fired on the doors of several of them", explained Sheriff Bouchard.
Placed in a center for juvenile delinquents, Ethan Crumbley is subject to particularly strict surveillance, the authorities fearing that he is waiting for his life.
