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People remember the victims of the school massacre at Oxford High School in Michigan
Photo: Jake May / AP
After the fatal shooting with four dead at a school in the US state of Michigan, the parents of the 15-year-old attacker were also charged.
The judiciary is accusing James and Jennifer C. of manslaughter on four counts, the Oakland County prosecutor said on Friday.
The father and his son bought the weapon, a semi-automatic pistol, four days before the crime.
The teenager's mother is said to have described the gun on online platforms as a "Christmas present" for her son, the prosecutor said. After an incident shortly before the crime in which they were called to school with violent fantasies about drawings by their son, the parents did not check whether the teenager had the gun with him.
The parents refused to take their son home, so he went back to the classroom.
They wouldn't have searched his backpack for the gun either.
When it became known that someone at the school was shooting at people, the mother wrote her son a message saying "don't do it".
The father then drove home and called the police a short time later and stated that his weapon was missing, as the prosecutor described.
The prosecutor said the weapon was stored in an unlocked drawer in the parents' bedroom.
"Parents have a responsibility as gun owners"
Charges against the parents of a perpetrator in such an act of violence in schools are rare, but in this case the facts are "outrageous," as the prosecutor said.
"These charges are designed to hold those who contributed to this tragedy accountable and to send a message to gun owners that they have a responsibility."
The 15-year-old opened fire on Tuesday at his school in the small town of Oxford, north of Detroit.
He killed four classmates between the ages of 14 and 17 and injured six other students and a teacher.
The tenth grader allowed himself to be arrested without resistance and was subsequently charged with, among other things, terrorism resulting in death and quadruple murder.
The prosecution assumes an intentional act.
According to adult criminal law, the teenager should be tried.
He faces life imprisonment.
jso / AFP / dpa