A 15-year-old boy is in custody after three students died and eight were injured in a shooting Tuesday afternoon at a high school in Oxford, Michigan, authorities said.
The shooting victims were identified as Tate Myre, 16; Hanna St. Julian, 14, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17. Those injured included seven students and a teacher. Three are in critical condition with gunshot wounds, including a 14-year-old girl who is on a ventilator after having surgery. A 14-year-old boy is in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the jaw and head while three other students are in stable condition and the teacher who was shot has been discharged.
Who is Ethan Crumbley?
The suspect, a sophomore at the school, was taken into custody without incident two to three minutes after authorities responded to the shooting and is currently being held at a juvenile detention facility, where he has been placed on suicide watch.
According to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, the suspect came out of the bathroom armed with a 9MM semi-automatic handgun and fired around 15-20 shots in the south end of the school building and acted alone.
Although authorities have not released the suspect's identity as he is a juvenile who has not been charged, the Detroit News described the shooter as a "bespectacled boy" who appeared in a local newspaper in 2017.
The description noted that the boy was a fifth-grader at the time at the international baccalaureate school. The newspaper clipping started circulating on social media, with netizens identifying the shooter as Ethan Crumbley.
'Return of the Devil'
Amid the speculation, Twitter users started sharing screenshots of what they claimed to be posts shared by Instagram accounts belonging to Crumbley. One image showed a countdown captioned "Return of the Devil" alongside an image of a deer head being found on the school's campus.
Earlier this month, a severed head and graffiti were found in the Oxford High School's courtyard, which the school addressed in a statement to parents.
Another image that has gone viral is a screenshot of the alleged shooter's Instagram page, which includes posts of a 9mm handgun, a shooting range target as well as creepy photos of evil characters from horror film franchises such as Jigsaw from the Saw franchise and Michael Myers from the Halloween series.
The image of the 9mm handgun was posted four days ago captioned, "Just got my new beauty today. SIG SAUER 9mm," – the same pistol that was used in the school shooting. Bouchard also confirmed that the gun used in the shooting was purchased by the shooter's father on Black Friday four days ago.
