EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated to acknowledge the death of a fourth Oxford High student, the suspect’s name and charges.
HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — For the rest of this week, Oxford Community Schools are closed, after a mass shooting Tuesday. Four students, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 17-year-old Justin Shilling, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, were killed and seven others injured. It’s the most-recent of more than two dozen school shootings since January, the bulk of which have happened since August.
Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 15-year-old boy, later identified as Ethan Crumbley, five minutes after the first call to 911. Sheriff’s indicated he allegedly fired between 15 and 20 shots using a gun his father had purchased over the Thanksgiving holiday. The suspect now faces charges as an adult: one count of terrorism, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder, and 12 counts of possession of a firearm, according to Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald during a Wednesday press conference.
Oxford is a suburb of Pontiac, 20 minutes’ drive north, in an area of Oakland County that is both upscale and bucolic, slightly smaller in population but similar to Zeeland.
Each has high schools with about 1,800 students, fewer than 6,000 residents, with a median income of around $70,000 per year and homes valued at about $200,000. Both towns have relatively low poverty levels, just over 7 percent. Ottawa County’s poverty level is just over 8 percent; the State of Michigan’s hovers around 10 percent, and the U.S. level is just under 12 percent.
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