Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley recorded audio saying ‘I’m gonna have so much fun’ the night before the carnage, evidence shows
Ethan Crumbley recorded audio saying, “I am going to be the next school shooter,” the night before killing four students and wounding seven others in a mass shooting at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021.
Prosecutors played the audio of two video clips Thursday during a hearing to determine whether he should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“My name is Ethan Crumbley, age 15, and I am going to be the next school shooter,” he is heard saying on the audio played in court. “I’ve thought about this a lot. I can’t stop thinking about it. But it’s constantly in my head.”
Crumbley appeared to look down at the defense table as the audio was played.
In the second audio file played at the hearing Crumbley said, “I’m gonna have so much fun tomorrow.”
In the recordings, Crumbley talks about the decline of his life, his hate for the world and the need to teach others “a lesson” by shooting up a school.
“I will walk behind someone, and I will shoot a bullet into their skull. And that’s the first victim,” he said. “I’m gonna open fire on everyone in the hallway … I will try to hit as many people as I can. I will reload, and I will find people hiding. I want to teach them a lesson of how they are wrong, of how they are being brainwashed.”
Earlier Thursday, Crumbley’s journal entries were read in court.
Crumbley successfully executed many of the plans he outlined in the journal, Keast told the court.
One entry said: “I want to shoot up the school so f**king badly.”
“The first victim has to be a pretty girl with a future so she can suffer just like me,” Crumbley wrote in another.
The first shooting victim was a female student, Phoebe Arthur, the lieutenant confirmed.
“I will continue shooting people until police breach the building,” Crumbley wrote. “I will then surrender to them and plead guilty to life in prison.”
In one journal entry, Crumbley wrote about not having food because of his parents’ financial struggles.
“This morning, I woke up to my mom having one of her worst rants about how we have no money and can’t pay the bills. This just furthers my desire to shoot up the school or do something else. I have no happiness or optimism left in me as I am a burden to my parents,” Crumbley wrote.
Earlier Thursday, prosecutors played surveillance video of the shooting with no audio. Several family members tearfully watched the video.
Crumbley’s premeditation ahead of the shooting and propensity for violence are among the reasons he should receive a life sentence, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in her opening statement.
Crumbley’s attorney, Paulette Loftin, said the defense will show Crumbley is not “irreparably corrupt” and should be sentenced to a term of years in prison.
The hearing resumes Friday morning.
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