Attorney Geoffrey Fieger blasted the Oxford School District Thursday morning in announcing his $100 million against the district over the mass shooting that left four students dead,
saying officials “allowed the deranged, homicidal student to return to class with a gun in his backpack, with over 30 rounds of ammo in his backpack, when they knew he was a homicidal threat.”
“He was allowed to carry it out,” Fieger said of 15-year-old Ethan Trumbley,
who is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and terrorism for allegedly opening fire in his school on Nov.
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30 with a gun his parents bought for him just four days prior as an early Christmas present.
“How in the world does a 15-year-old get armed to commit murder in schools?” said Fieger, who said gun violence has gotten out of control due to a lack of reforms.
The lawsuit is filed on behalf of 17-year-old Riley Franz, who was shot in the neck during the 5-minute long massacre that left four of her classmates dead and injured seven others, including a teacher.
Riley’s 14-year-old sister, Bella Franz, also is a plaintiff in the suit, which alleges that the sisters are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, and that the younger sibling “narrowly escaped the bullets” as she watched her sister get shot.
The lawsuit follows one of the deadliest school shootings in the United States since 2018. It alleges that the school district did not do enough to stop Ethan Crumbley from tearing through the hallways with a gun, as police say video evidence from inside the school shows.
At the heart of the lawsuit is an argument that parents have been making since the shooting: Why didn’t the district remove Crumbley from school when he began to display troubling behavior?
According to police, the prosecution and the lawsuit, here is what school officials knew ahead of time:
On the day before the shooting, Ethan Crumbley was seen looking for ammunition on his cellphone.
On the morning of the shooting, he was found with a note depicting a semiautomatic handgun with the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,” and a sketch of someone bleeding.
His parents were summoned, and a meeting with counselors and their son followed at the school. The parents were ordered to get their son into counseling within 48 hours. The resisted the counseling request and left the meeting. Their son went back to his class, with his backpack.
The backpack was never searched. Police said they believe Ethan Crumbley had the gun and ammunition in his backpack at the time.
Just before 1 p.m., gunfire erupted. Ethan Crumbley had gone into a bathroom with his backpack, came out with a gun and started blasting shots down the hallway. He surrendered in five minutes to sheriffs deputies who arrived at the scene, police said.
“The horror of November 30, 2021 was entirely preventable,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit argues that the two students are protected under the 14th Amendment, specifically that they have the right to be free from danger created or increased by those named in the suit.
According to school officials, Crumbley explained that the drawing of the gun and blood was part of a video game design, and that counselors did not believe he might harm others based on his “behavior, responses and demeanor,” so they let him return to class.