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'Never Enough': Family Of Oxford High School Shooting Victims On Suspect Ethan Crumbley's Parents Getting Sentenced
At Crumbley sentencing, Families of Oxford school shooting victims come out demanding justice for their irreparable loss as well as the families’ expressions of pain. The family of the victims speaks out their hearts inside the courthouse.
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Emotional victim impact statements highlight profound pain and anger
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Prosecutors emphasize the importance of accountability in preventing such tragedies
Trigger warning: This article contains a reference to tragic death.
At a sentencing hearing in Oxford, Michigan, the parents whose children were killed in the tragic school shooting back in 2021 expressed their painful feelings towards James and Jennifer Crumbley, parents of Ethan Crumbley. The convicted shooter, Ethan, carried out his plan to open fire at Oxford High School, killing four students and injuring seven more. The Crumbley couple was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
Emotional victim impact statements
The April 9 hearing was fraught with emotion as family members spoke directly to James and Jennifer Crumbley.
Nicole Beausoleil, Madisyn Baldwin's mother, did not mince words. “You failed as parents,” she said bitterly to the Crumbleys, explaining that “the punishment you face will never be enough.”
Beausoleil, like other speakers during the proceedings, begged the judge to give them the maximum sentence allowed by law for being parents to a shooter who caused her daughter’s death.
In her mourning speech, she mournfully confessed, “Those decisions that you made ultimately took my daughter’s life.”
Reina St. Juliana then described how she felt after her sister Hana was murdered by this same person.
She told her heart-wrenching story about losing her sister Hana, and lamenting over not even saying goodbye makes her cry when she thinks about it now. People quoted her saying, “I never got to say goodbye. I never got to remind her that I love her, that she’s my everything, the person I want to walk through life with side-by-side.”
Consequences of negligence
This case highlighted what could have been done differently by exposing the consequences of negligence on the part of the two accused. Craig Shilling blamed that “the blood of our children is on your hands.” Moreover, according to prosecutors, the gun used in the shooting was a gift that Ethan’s parents gave him just before the fatal day.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald expressed her satisfaction with what went down. She insisted that James and Jennifer Crumbley should be held liable for their roles in this incident by emphasizing, “If it were not for the actions of James and Jennifer Crumbley, the shooter would have never had access to the gun he used to take four innocent lives inside Oxford High School.”
Closure amidst tragedy
While these sentences may provide closure for some families who are mourning their loved ones, others will continue to grieve. Though these sentences may bring some semblance of closure to grieving families, they still cannot ease away their pain from losing a child so young.
These judgments on James and Jennifer Crumbley remind us about how negligence costs many lives as well as why accountability matters when preventing such tragedies in the future.
Even though the community healing process is ongoing, the living memory of victims remains within their dearest people. The fact that such things could be avoided if only love was enough has been illustrated by this sentencing trial, where enduring love won over lifetime tragedy.
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