Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley “felt relieved” when he was sent to his high school’s office over violent drawings and believed he was going to be arrested moments before he opened fire in the halls — killing four students in 2021, a psychologist testified Tuesday.
Crumbley’s disturbing drawings were discovered by a teacher and his parents were called in for a meeting but he was allowed to go back to class and his backpack — which contained the gun he used to kill four students and injure seven others on Nov. 30, 2021 — and was never searched.
A psychologist for the defense team said that the baby-faced killer had no doubt in his mind that his bag would be searched and the gun found, thus soiling his planned massacre.
“Ethan said for the first time in his life he felt relieved,” Colin King testified at a court hearing. “He said he just knew the sheriffs were going to burst into the office and arrest him because there was no way — after all that they saw — they weren’t going to search that backpack.”
Crumbley, 17, pleaded guilty in October to murder, terrorism and other charges for the mass shooting at Oxford High School.
The case was brought to court last week to determine his fate as prosecutors are asking for life in prison without the possibility of parole.
His defense team is requesting he be given a shorter sentence with the chance of freedom via parole one day. They are attempting to prove that Crumbley was neglected by his parents, struggling with his mental health and calling out for help at the time of the shooting but is able to be rehabilitated.
King said he believed Crumbley can “absolutely” be rehabilitated.
“A number of my clients have had issues with the law,” said King, who has testified in many homicide cases. “Through psychotherapy and support, they’ve been able to make progress. … Ethan’s brain is still maturing.”
Crumbley’s lawyers played footage from jail showing the distraught teen wailing earlier this year as deputies restrained him.
“Why didn’t you stop it, God? Why didn’t you stop it when it happened. … I’m sorry, God!” the killer cried in the video.
Crumbley’s reflections are a stark contrast to the shocking confessional video he took of himself the night before he rained bullets in the halls of his high school. He said he was “gonna have so much fun” shooting his classmates and called himself the devil.
King said he spent more than 20 hours across several meetings with Crumbley and reviewed his highly disturbing journal entries and texts.
He said the shooter’s parents created a turbulent upbringing in which he was left alone for hours, subjected to their arguments with one another and even left to figure out what to do with his beloved dog when it died.
“He can be considered a feral child,” King said.
“It is essentially a child who has been abandoned. … Someone who is abandoned has what is called arrested development,” he said. “They lack social cues. They become misfits in society.”
The teen’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are facing involuntary manslaughter in a separate case for allegedly buying a gun for their son days before he shot up the school and ignoring his mental health needs.
The psychologist concluded that Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, has major depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He said the shooter’s brain is still developing.
“A number of innocent people died,” he said. “I’m not here to make excuses for Ethan Crumbley. He planned the attack. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. He was mentally ill.”
Assistant prosecutor David Williams shot back at King’s diagnosis.
People with depression “all don’t become mass shooters, do they?” he asked King.
He then reminded the court that victim Justin Shilling was shot dead in a bathroom.
“You think that’s the product of a juvenile brain?” Williams asked.
“I do,” King replied.
Oakland County Judge Kwame Rowe will determine the boy’s sentencing. The next hearing is Aug. 18.
With Post wires