Michigan

Michigan shooter’s mom told police ‘he’s going to have to suffer’ after school slayings

Published

2 years ago

January 31, 2024

Michigan shooter’s mom told police ‘he’s going to have to suffer’ after school slayings

Jennifer Crumbley was “irritated” and “kind of frustrated” when police took her into custody in the aftermath of a shooting at her son’s Michigan high school, a detective testified at her trial Wednesday.

Days before, her son Ethan Crumbley, then 15, killed four people and wounded seven others at Oxford High School, about 45 miles north of Detroit. She and her husband had gone into hiding after being charged in connection with the massacre but authorities found them sleeping at a Detroit art gallery five days after the Nov. 30, 2021 shootings.

“I could tell she was kind of frustrated,” Det. Lt. Sam Marzban of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department told jurors. “I told her there were several dead kids … and that this was a significant incident, that it was on the national news and that the president had addressed it.”

“Was Jennifer Crumbley crying?” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald asked.

She was not, he answered, but Marzban said he recalled Crumbley saying, “‘Lives were lost today, and he’s going to have to suffer.’

“The choice of words was odd for me,” he said.

In the days before the shooting, prosecutors have said, Ethan Crumbley was depressed, lonely and hallucinating. The teen texted his mom that he was seeing demons throw bowls around the house, and hearing toilets flush when no one was home.

His parents were called to the school when Ethan drew a picture of a gun on a math worksheet with a bleeding body and the words, “The thoughts won’t stop, help me.” A day before, a teacher saw Ethan searching for ammunition on his phone, and when the school contacted Jennifer Crumbley, she texted her son, “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught,” according to the prosecutor’s office.

The Crumbleys, prosecutors said, promised to get help for Ethan, but declined to take him home and then returned to work without telling the school their son had access to a gun. Ethan went back to class; two hours later, at about 1 p.m., he came out of a bathroom and opened fire on the school with the gun, which was in his backpack.

Marzban was the first person to testify Wednesday in the ongoing trial of Jennifer Crumbley, who’s charged with involuntary manslaughter linked to the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting spree at Oxford High School. Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. His father, Jennifer’s husband James Crumbley, will be tried separately beginning March 5.

A day earlier, a teacher saw Ethan searching for ammunition on his phone. The school contacted his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, who then told her son in a text message: “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught,” the prosecutor’s office said.

The detective told the jury and Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews his job included identifying the shooting victims; he provided graphic details about a scene he called “kind of surreal,” including one victim who was still wearing her backpack when he found her in the hallway.

Jennifer Crumbley, the first parent in the U.S. to stand trial on charges stemming from a child’s mass shooting, went on the run with her husband after the shooting. The prosecution is arguing that the Crumbleys were selfish and uncaring, ignoring their son’s spiraling mental illness and buying him the gun that he used in the shootings rather than seeking help for him.

The Crumbleys’ lawyers say they had no way of knowing or predicting that their son might go on a murderous spree, that the gun was secured and the charges are overreaching.

When the Crumbleys were discovered at a Detroit art gallery days after the shooting, Marzban testified, Jennifer Crumbley “did not want to give me her phone. She seemed irritated.” He said her husband told her the police would eventually get the phone, so she turned it over and gave him the password.

On trial: Jennifer Crumbley, charged in son’s school shooting, sobs at ‘horrific’ footage of rampage

The arguments: Jury selection begins for Oxford school shooter’s mother in unprecedented trial

Marzban also helped secure a search warrant of the Crumbleys’ house after identifying Ethan through items found in his backpack, including his cellphone.

The phone had texts from Jennifer Crumbley that said, “Ethan don’t do it,” about an hour after the shooting had been reported. Another text from James Crumbley read, “Ethan, call me now.”

The jury Wednesday also saw video footage of the Crumbleys’ arrest and heard from the person who called 911 to report where the couple was sleeping, a business owner nearby who recognized the description of the Crumbleys’ car from posters circulating after the shooting.

The prosecution has said it expects to rest its case by Friday and it still had nine witnesses to put on the stand.

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Michigan

Michigan football signs former No. 1-ranked running back

Published

9 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Michigan football signs former No. 1-ranked running back

Michigan football moved quickly to help fill its running back room on Thursday, adding the No. 1-ranked rusher in the 2024 recruiting class to the roster.

Taylor Tatum, who spent the last two seasons at Oklahoma, signed with the Wolverines for the 2026 season, The Ann Arbor News/MLive confirmed.

Tatum, listed at 5-foot-10 and 212 pounds, has three seasons of college eligibility remaining.

He appeared in 12 games for the Sooners, most of it during his true-freshman season in 2024. That first season, Tatum rushed for 278 yards and three touchdowns, highlighted by a five-carry, 69-yard game in Oklahoma’s season opener against Temple.

Tatum was hampered by injuries in 2025, appearing in just one game against South Carolina, where he rushed once for negative-1 yard.

A former four-star recruit, Tatum was considered the nation’s No. 1 running back in 2024 out of Longview High School in Texas, where he set the school record for career rushing touchdowns (53). He picked Oklahoma over Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, USC, among others.

Tatum was also a member of the Oklahoma baseball team, though he didn’t appear in a game in 2025.

The signing comes just a day after Michigan’s leading rusher in 2025, Jordan Marshall, announced his return to the Wolverines. Since the transfer portal opened last Friday, reserve running backs Bryson Kuzdzal and Jasper Parker have entered. Parker has since signed to play at Arkansas next season.

Meanwhile, Michigan awaits a decision from its other star back, Justice Haynes, who’s left the door open to a return to college. A pair of freshmen backs, Savion Hiter and Jonathan Brown, also joined the team this week.

Tony Alford, Michigan’s running backs coach, was one of three assistants retained by new head coach Kyle Whittingham.

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Michigan

Kyle Whittingham knows what Michigan football needs

Published

21 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Kyle Whittingham knows what Michigan football needs

Michigan football is primed to win now, new coach Kyle Whittingham said this week on “The Dan Patrick Show.”

The Wolverines have made far too many headlines off the field, which is why Whittingham told Patrick the organization needs to simply get back to focusing on the reason they’re all together as a team − football.

“The place doesn’t need a rebuild, it needs a reboot of trust and getting rid of the drama and just get back to playing Michigan football without all the distractions,” Whittingham said. “It didn’t come from the players. The players were not involved. It was not some player issue – it was just the peripheral.

“Guys here have a great attitude, I met with everyone of them last week at the bowl site. Quality young men, care about academics, excited to be at Michigan, but they’ve dealt with a lot over the last few years.”

Whittingham, 66, takes over as the 22nd head coach in program history after a pair of scandals rocked the previous two men who held his job.

Jim Harbaugh led the Wolverines from 2015-23 − and left on top by winning a national championship − but also was found to have a lack of institutional control in his program by NCAA investigators after two separate NCAA violations occurred under his watch: impermissible recruiting and illegal sign-stealing.

More recently, Sherrone Moore was fired in scandal after he was found to have had a relationship with a subordinate and was subsequently arrested after he allegedly went to her house and threatened his own life − he was jailed for two nights and charged with felony home invasion, misdemeanor stalking and misdemeanor breaking and entering.

Patrick asked if there was any selling point Whittingham needed to hear specifically from Michigan. Whittingham said when he stepped away from Utah in mid-December there were only a handful of program’s he would have even entertained. He called Michigan “a special place.”

“Needed to hear that Michigan was what I thought it was,” he said. “Hey’re committed to winning here, we do have some challenges with entrance requirements, there is a little bit of a hurdle there, but talk about athletes, resources, tradition − it’s all here at Michigan.”

Whittingham also quipped about the irony of previously being a team that wore red (Utah) whose primary rival wore blue (BYU) to flipping that. It’s also not lost on him that his mentor, Urban Meyer, went 7-0 against Michigan in his tenure in Columbus − Whittingham joked at his opening press conference that Meyer’s name alone might be considered a “four-letter word” in Ann Arbor.

“Blue was our rival at Utah for years,” he said. “Now I’ve got to get used to saying, ‘Go Blue.’”

Whittingham is in the throes of one of the busiest times on the college football calendar. The transfer portal opened for a 15-day window Jan. 2-16, setting off a scramble to both retain players, scout the database and find appropriate fits for the team.

Whittingham has only known his roster and coaches for approximately 10 days – he said while down in Florida he was going to “lock himself” in a room at Schembechler Hall in Ann Arbor to watch film on the players on his roster. He has been able to keep Bryce Underwood, Andrew Marsh, Andrew Babalola, Blake Frazier, Evan Link, Jake Guarnera and Zeke Berry − the last two of whom had put their names in the transfer portal before indicating their return to U-M for 2026.

With money flowing, back-channeling frequent and poaching at an all-time high, Whittingham doesn’t see college football’s current model as something that will last as currently constructed for more than a handful of years.

“It is not sustainable, there’s no question about that,” Whittingham said. “Something’s gotta give. Within a 2- to 4-, 5-year window, you’re going to see a major overhaul of Division I football. I think it’s going to become more of a minor league NFL model. I think you’re gonna see a salary cap, collective bargaining, players as employees.

“I think all that’s coming because we cannot maintain this pace.”

Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

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Michigan

Michigan Lottery contributions over $1B to K-12 schools for 7th year in a row, state says

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Press Room

Michigan Lottery contributions over B to K-12 schools for 7th year in a row, state says

LANSING, MI – The Michigan Lottery’s annual contribution to K-12 education reached more than $1 billion for the seventh time in a row in 2025, according to the state.

The amount at $1.16 billion makes up roughly 5-6% of the state’s School Aid Fund, which has exceeded $20 billion in recent years.

It peaked in 2021 at $1.4 billion, according to the state budget office, marking a 78.4% increase in six years at the time. The reported portion for 2025 marks a slight decrease when compared to the previous five years.

In a release on Wednesday, Jan. 7, the state reported the total Lottery contribution had reached more than $30 billion since it began in 1972 and $8.7 billion within a seven-year span.

“In (2025), Lottery retailers earned more than $300 million in commissions for the sixth straight year,” Acting Lottery Commissioner Joe Froehlich said in a statement. “The support the Lottery provides to public education and to businesses throughout the state is critical and far-reaching.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office utilized Wednesday’s announcement to recap the current state investment in K-12 schools based on the budget deal lawmakers green-lit in October three months after the current fiscal year was already underway.

That includes a 4.6% hike to $10,050 per student, $201.6 million to maintain a free universal meals program that Whitmer said saves “parents almost $1,000 a year per kid,” and a series of investments geared toward boosting literacy skills.

“This year’s lottery contributions will help build on that progress and make a difference for students, educators and schools across Michigan,” the governor said in a statement.

Other budget highlights included hundreds of millions in grants to reduce class sizes and school infrastructure, as well as for career-technical education and English-language learners.

Additionally, there was another $258.7 million boost to $1.3 billion for at-risk student supports and $321 million to support mental health and school safety initiatives ― the latter including a waiver requirement that spurred litigation from schools against the state in late 2025.

According to the Michigan Lottery, participating retailers earned more than $330 million in commissions for the 2025 fiscal year. Since 2019, when the Lottery’s streak of billion-dollar contributions to the School Aid Fund began, the state reported more than $2.3 billion in commissions.

Lottery products are sold at more than 10,000 locations across the state, and over 700 retailers sold $1 million or more last year in Lottery games.

Michigan residents took home more than $2.8 billion in prizes in 2025 and over $58 billion since the Lottery began.

According to the state, roughly 25 cents went to the School Aid Fund from every dollar spent on a Michigan Lottery Ticket, while 63 cents went to players as prizes, 9 cents to vendor commissions and 3 cents to the Lottery’s operations.

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