Michigan school staffer recalls shooting with ‘disbelief’ as judge considers sentence

PONTIAC, Mich. – A woman who was wounded in a Michigan school shooting in 2021 said she blocked her office door with a bulky cabinet and sent a text message to her husband amid the chaos.

“I said, ‘I love you. Active shooter.’ He said, ‘Just get safe,’” Molly Darnell told a judge. “I didn’t respond to that. … I was still in disbelief that I had been shot, but I knew I was bleeding.”

Darnell, who helped teachers craft lesson plans at Oxford High School, testified Thursday at a key hearing that will determine whether Ethan Crumbley will be sentenced to life in prison or a shorter term with an opportunity for parole.

The hearing will resume Friday in Oakland County court.

Crumbley, 17, pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes. But a life sentence for minors isn’t automatic after a series of decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and Michigan’s top court.

Crumbley is “not one of those rare individuals who is irreparably corrupt and can’t be rehabilitated,” defense attorney Paulette Michel Loftin said in her opening statement, referring to a key legal standard for teens.

Judge Kwame Rowe must consider many factors, including mental health and family life. Crumbley was 15 when he emerged from a school bathroom with a gun, killed four students and wounded seven other people.

Prosecutor Karen McDonald wants a life sentence. She said Crumbley was an “offender like no other,” torturing and killing birds months earlier, meticulously planning the shooting and quickly surrendering to spend his future behind bars.

Both sides used Crumbley’s 22-page journal, found in a school bathroom, to reinforce their positions.

“I can feel the evil around me and even dogs sense it. … I don’t want to be evil,” he wrote in a passage introduced by Loftin.

The lead investigator, Lt. Timothy Willis, read aloud some of the journal’s darkest parts.

“I don’t care about my grades any more,” Crumbley wrote. “I’m about to shoot up my school and spend the rest of my life in prison.”

Crumbley made a video on the eve of the shooting, rambling about the state of education and politics as well as God and the devil. He said he would kill the next day.

Darnell was the first victim to testify. She recalled seeing an unusual rush of students outside her office at lunch.

Darnell said she suddenly “locked eyes” with a boy in baggy clothes raising a gun toward her. She didn’t know Crumbley.

“I kind of jumped to the right and felt my left shoulder move back. It felt like someone had burned me with hot water,” Darnell said.

She made a tourniquet with her sweater to stop the bleeding and called her husband to say she had been shot.

If Crumbley doesn’t get a life sentence, he would be given a minimum prison sentence somewhere from 25 years to 40 years. He would then be eligible for parole, though the parole board has much discretion to keep a prisoner in custody.

There were opportunities to prevent the shooting earlier that day. Crumbley and his parents met with school staff after a teacher was troubled by drawings that included a gun pointing at the words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”

Crumbley was allowed to stay in school, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Detroit, though his backpack was not checked for weapons.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are separately charged with involuntary manslaughter. They’re accused of buying a gun for their son and ignoring his mental health needs.

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