Judge: Michigan school shooting suspect contemplated using Molotov cocktail

A Michigan judge on Tuesday said 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley created molotov cocktails and had contemplated using them in the Oxford, Mich., school shooting last November, which left four students dead.

In an opinion, Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe said he reviewed text messages and journal entries from Crumbley showing the teenager mulled over whether to use the molotov cocktails, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Rowe ordered Crumbley to remain in Oakland County Jail, an adult detention jail, while awaiting trial, where the teen faces a first-degree murder charge and terrorism charges for killing the four students and leaving seven others injured.

Crumbley’s parents are also facing trial for involuntary manslaughter and are accused of allegedly ignoring clear warning signs of their son’s mental distress.

The parents are also charged with purchasing the firearm used in the shooting for their teenage son.

All three Crumbleys have pleaded not guilty.

Ethan showed clear signs of disturbance before the shooting, according to Judge Rowe’s opinion reviewed by the Detroit Free Press. The teenager, for example, slowly tortured eight baby birds to death.

“The nature and circumstances of the alleged offense are extremely troubling and disturbing,” Rowe wrote in his opinion, according to the news outlet.

The judge’s decision to keep Ethan in adult jail is a win for prosecutors, who claimed the teenager “has a deeper and more calculated mind than any other 15-year-old.”

An attorney for Crumbley said the teenager should be transferred to the Children’s Village, a juvenile detention facility focused on rehabilitation, because Oakland County Jail is “not equipped with handling juveniles.”