how hard of a case is it to make against the parents and from what we just heard there from that, does she have the evidence to convict? this is not going to be an easy case. i think we all need to be clear about that. this is the first of its kind. first of all, involuntary manslaughter charge in a case involving a mass shooting like this. i ve never seen anything like it. i think it s unprecedented. what the prosecutor has has to show is not just negligence or carelessness but the parent s actions were so inexcusable they created a situation dangerous to life or great bodily injury. that s a fairly high bar. the prosecutor has three pillars of the case. the purchase of the firearm by the father for the child, which may have been illegal, a straw purchase, if an adult allowed to purchase a gun purchases it really on behalf of the child, there is the search, the internet search for ammunition, which i think the strongest piece of evidence in the case is the mother s text to the son s
joining success oakland county prosecutor karen mcfor alleged. thanks for being with us this morning. you heard the defense saying the gun was locked. did ethan probably have a key to it? it s not clear. i know, what we know is that he had free access and based on the social media posts and other comments and evidence that i can t comment on, the gun was considered his and it was purchased as a present for him. so michigan doesn t have a safe storage law. does that hurt the case here? well, it does not have a safe storage law and hopefully that will change soon, but no, it doesn t. this is a charge based on gross negligence and failure to perform a duty. there s a lot of evidence and
parents response or lack of response when the school brought to their attention the drawing and the warning. those are the three pillars of the case. legally i think it s a justified charge but it s not an easy win. what about the school there? i will say, she said they haven t made any decisions yet but her body language was i m focused on the parents not the school. she said the school had grounds to search the backpack. it s low bar to search a backpack or locker. we know from the supreme court, reasonable suspicion. i also think it s unlikely she would charge the school with a criminal offense here. because they had grounds to do it, the act of not doing it doesn t necessarily make it illegal. right, that may fall under negligence but to me it doesn t rise to criminal nemgs. there are situations all the time where schools may or may not want to search or need to search and we can say they should have but i just think it s a bit of a stretch to say that school administrator
it does not end up in the hands of somebody who is absolutely exhibiting signs that he is not okay, that he wants to harm somebody. i mean, the nation has looked at the statements can i ask you, karen, besides and i don t know it needs more than this but obviously it s important in the case that you re building, aside from the search for ammo, aside from the social media posts where he s referring to the gun as his own and his mom s media post, aside from the drawing that was incredibly disturbing shortly before the shooting, is there other, are there other data points that are revealing to you besides that about his intentions? yes, and i can t comment on that. i can only comment on the facts that are made public in the swear to. i will say, brianna, even just the three things there that you
list listed, it s really hard to stomach, as somebody that cares about kids or any of us, that was not revealed that he had open access to that weapon, and combined with the drawings and the statements on the drawings, you know, i just want i m going to do everything i can to prosecute this case and get justice for victims, but i also want us to do better, and you know, we have to start addressing how somebody like that can so easily get their hands on a weapon and we have to hold the people responsible who allowed that to happen. in the conversation that school officials had with the parents, were guns discussed? not to my knowledge. but based on the statements that the superintendent has made, not to my knowledge. did the school ask ethan