On Tuesday, Nov. 30, Ethan Crumbley, a sophomore at Oxford High School in Michigan opened fire on his classmates. After about five minutes and more than 30 shots fired, the suspect was taken into custody without a struggle. The shooting resulted in four dead students and seven more injured. 

As of right now, there does not seem to be any particular motive for this shooting. The suspect has no past criminal record, and the gun used in the shooting had been purchased by his father on Nov. 26, Black Friday, just days before the incident. 

There had been allegations of a possible shooting circulating around social media before Tuesday. Senior Treshan Bryant said, “I stayed home from school Tuesday. I heard threats that there would be a shooting, and I just had a bad feeling.” Police officers were only made aware of these threats after the incident, but reinforced the idea of “if you see something, say something” and reporting threats to the police. 

Suncoast sophomore Natalie Connelly said, “A situation like that sounds so scary. I’d like to say I would be able to act quickly and intelligently if something like this happened at Suncoast, but honestly, I don’t think I would know what to do under pressure like that.” 

Oxford High students recall barricading doors and arming themselves with scissors when the first gunshot rang out. “We grabbed calculators, we grabbed scissors just in case the shooter got in and we had to attack them,” Aiden Page, a freshman at Oxford High, said. “One of the bullets pierced the desks barricading our door. That’s when we ran out the back window.” 

Gerado Gonzalez, a Spanish teacher at Suncoast High, believes teachers have responsibility for the safety of their students during attacks. Gonzalez said, “You never think that something like this could happen to you or happen to your school. But it does. I know I am prepared if I ever need to face a crisis like a school shooting.” 

Crumbley began shooting just before 1:00 p.m. Video footage shows him entering the bathroom empty-handed and coming out with his weapon. As soon as he got into the hallway, Crumbley started shooting others in the halls, never entering any classrooms. 

County sheriff Michael Bouchard said, “He came with the intent to kill people. He was shooting people in close range, oftentimes toward the head or chest. This shooting was absolutely premeditated.” Authorities later found a video on the suspect’s phone made the day before the day of the attack, where Crumbley described how he planned to shoot and kill students at school the next day. 

Due to this, Crumbley is facing a variety of charges: four counts of first-degree murder, one count of terrorism causing death, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm. Crumbley is now being held in an adult jail and being charged as an adult.