Ethan Crumbley recorded himself vowing to become the next school shooter. Then he killed four classmates

The night before he killed four classmates and wounded seven others at Michigan’s Oxford High School, Ethan Crumbley foretold the carnage that was about to ensue.

On two audio recordings, played before a court hearing on 27 July, Crumbley boasts of trying to kill as many students as he can, and the enjoyment he will take from it.

“My name is Ethan Crumbley, age 15, and I am going to be the next school shooter,” he says on one recording.

“I’ve thought about this a lot. I can’t stop thinking about it. But it’s constantly in my head.”

In a second audio, he says: “I’m gonna have so much fun tomorrow.”

Crumbley, 17, pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder and 19 other charges stemming from the mass shooting he committed on 30 November 2021 at the age of 15.

Although even given the heinous, premeditated nature of his crimes were not a foregone conclusion, Crumbley was eventually sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on 8 December.

His attorneys launched an appeal of his sentence — life without parole — in January.

Crumbley’s parents Jennifer and James Crumbley have pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting.

The parents are being tried separately. The 17-year-old’s lawyers also said should their client take the stand in either of his parent’s trials, they have advised their client to stay quiet.

Jennifer Crumbley’s trial is underway.

In court, Crumbley’s excerpts from the teenager’s 22-page handwritten journal read out by lead investigator Lt Timothy Willis provided a horrifying insight into his state of mind in the lead-up to the shooting.

“I want to shoot up the school so f***ing badly,” Crumbley writes in one entry of the journal, recovered from his backpack in a school bathroom after the shooting.

“The first victim has to be a pretty girl with a future so she can suffer just like me.”

“I want America to hear what I did,” he also wrote. “I will cause the largest school shooting in the state. I wish to hear the screams of the children as I shoot them.”

Crumbley laid out how the shooting would transpire. “I will continue shooting people until police breach the building,” he wrote. “I will then surrender to them and plead guilty to life in prison.”

In the week leading up to the killings, Crumbley searched online about the death penalty in Michigan and prison sentences for 15-year-olds.

In audio recordings, he outlined how his life had declined and the anger he felt towards the world and his need to teach other students a “lesson”.

“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.”

Xural.com