'Get the job done': Families of Oxford High School shooting victims demand state-led investigation

OXFORD, Mich. (FOX 2) - As the three-year anniversary of the Oxford High School shooting approaches, family members of victims continue to seek accountability and answers.

These family members, including the parents of the four students killed – Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, and Justin Shilling – called on the state to mandate an independent investigation into what led to the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting. 

Though the shooter and his parents have both been sentenced and are in prison, the victims' families still want an investigation into the actions taken by school employees before a 15-year-old student opened fire. They said this call for an investigation is about creating change to protect others.

"We will do whatever it takes to drive the change, because it's not a matter of if a school shooting happens again, but when," said Steve St. Juliana, Hana's father.

The shooter had come on the radar of school employees when he was caught looking up bullets in class and drawing violent images on a worksheet. He spent time in the school's office the morning of the shooting, and even had the gun used in his backpack at that time. Because of this, questions have been asked about whether more could have been done to prevent the fatal shooting.

"It's been three years since the shooting, and we haven’t implemented any real change," said Buck Myre, Tate's father. "Don’t we want to learn from this?"

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Oakland County prosecutors claim that James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the accused Oxford High School shooter knew about their son Ethan Crumbley's mental state but did not help him.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel did offer to investigate the shooting twice, but the school board rejected both of her offers, saying that it would use "more holistic third-party reviews."

After those offers were turned down, the shooting was investigated by Guidepost Solutions, who put the blame on the school district.

"In certain critical areas, individuals at every level of the district, from the board to the Superintendent and his cabinet, to the OHS administration and staff, failed to provide a safe and secure environment," the report said.

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"Our investigation has revealed that had proper threat assessment guidelines been in place and District threat assessment policy followed, this tragedy was avoidable," the report said.

The report said that the district was responsible for keeping the four slain students and the rest of the survivors and students safe but "failed to do so."

Despite the result of this investigation, the family members argue that there wasn't subpoena power behind that deep dive, which resulted "in many school employees being advised by their attorneys to not participate, leaving crucial questions unanswered."

"All the people who work in schools need to be aware that we haven't learned a thing from this. This hasn't even been investigated," Buck Myre said. "That should be eye-opening to people."

Also, parents of the victims argued during a press conference Monday that Nessel does have the jurisdiction to investigate the shooting and received an invitation from the Oxford school board to do so. Members of the school board, as well as community members and law enforcement, flanked the parents as they called for a governmental investigation.

"We are tired of the back and forth between the government agencies saying, ‘Oh, you should have done this, and you should do that, and we don't have authority,' but you do," Steve St. Juliana said. "Get the job done. It's been three years of excuses."

Nessel addressed the claim that her office can investigate the shooting, saying that she needs a referral from local authorities, including the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office and Sheriff's Department, in order to begin investigating the case. As of Monday, she hadn't received such a referral.

"We share in the families' fatigue over the constant finger pointing and scapegoating in these investigations," she said.

According to Nessel, if she investigated the case, she would have the same authority that the Oakland County officials had. Because of this, an investigation performed by her office would most likely come to the same conclusions as other investigations that have been completed, she said.

"We'd require the willing participation of all witnesses, including staff and others," she said. "Including the dozens who did not cooperate with the Guidepost review."

Nessel said she wouldn't have subpoena power unless there was probable cause that a crime had been committed.

"My authorities are not expansive beyond those that are already held by the county prosecutor and sheriff, who currently have the investigation," she said. "If there is evidence of or probable cause to believe a crime has been committed, these local authorities could be investigating right now, rather than encouraging the investigation to be conducted elsewhere."

She also noted that the case is already halfway to the statute of limitations, meaning that an investigation would need to be expedited, requiring an expedited appropriation from the legislature to do so. 

"Any complete investigation by my office would require a number of things," Nessel said. "Oakland County would have to turn over their over 400 pieces of evidence admitted in the prosecution against the Crumbley family, as well as all of their evidence from their years-long investigation and prosecutions."

Nessel said she would also need cooperation from the sheriff's office, prosecutors, and local law enforcement. 

After Nessel's remarks, McDonald responded in a press release:

"From the very beginning, I have supported the parents of Hana St. Juliana, Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, and Tate Myre in their call for a comprehensive, state-led investigation into the shooting at Oxford High School. As indicated in my memo to the families, there is a difference between the role of a prosecutor, who is an advocate, and that of the police and other investigators, who gather evidence. My office does not have the authority to conduct the investigation the families have asked for. The Attorney General does. We are not aware of any mechanism for our office to refer a matter to the Attorney General’s office when it has not been presented to our office. And what the families are asking for is much broader. We are not aware of any action needed by my office to activate the Attorney General’s authority, but we will do everything possible to enable such an investigation. And my office will fully cooperate with any such investigation. There is so much we can learn, and we owe it to the students who were killed and those who were injured, their families, the Oxford community, and our children to do everything we can to prevent future shootings. An independent investigation remains a critical, missing piece in that process."

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