James Crumbley Trial: Former detective said after Oxford shooting students 'looked like zombies'

FOX 2 (WJBK) - A former Oakland County Sheriff's Office detective took the stand in the James Crumbley trial Thursday. 

Edward Wagrowski currently works with the US Secret Service but at the time of the Oxford High School mass shooting in 2021, was with the computer crimes unit. 

He testified about responding to the school and wondering at first if the reaction was blown out of proportion - adding all that changed when he joined in the police caravan.

"I came around the far corner on this complex - and (these police cars) turn that corner on two wheels on each side around the park, coming around that corner," he said. "Their lights and sirens were on and they were going too fast. And I'm like. Holy cow, this is real."

Wagrowski, who said he has a teen daughter, got visibly emotional as he recounted arriving at the family reunification area at the nearby Meijer, calling the scene chaos.

"That was tough. It was really tough," he said. "I remember standing there on Ray Road and I see these kids, one kid in need of a shoe, and one she won't walk through the snow bank going down to the Meijer. And I see these girls dressed like my daughter. 

"But you just saw these kids just coming down from where the school was. Like, it's hard to describe. They looked like zombies. Like they had no facial expression."

Wagrowski reviewed the security camera footage from Oxford High School with security in the moments after the shooter's arrest, while the site was still being cleared. 

"I'll never forget - (the shooter) came out of that bathroom like what I referred to before and like - (was proud), like his shoulders were back," he said describing the moments at the start of the shooting. "He comes out of the bathroom and there's Phoebe and her boyfriend just standing right there, and he takes the gun as he comes out of the bathroom and he turns and levels a gun 
and fires at Phoebe and hits her in the shoulder and fires at her boyfriend, hitting him in his hand as he raised (it)."

Wagrowski described the shooter's next action, which was the fatal shooting of Madisyn Baldwin who had crouched into the fetal position.

"I don't know why she did it, but it was in the fetal position and the shooter ran right up to her, and he put the gun right on her head," he said. "She just fell over."

Related: 

• Live Coverage: Opening arguments kick off trial of James Crumbley
• James Crumbley Trial: Oxford High School teacher testifies shooter was 'aiming to kill' her

Wagrowski described on video that the shooter then indiscriminately fired down the hallway in hopes of hitting someone, and as he rounded a corner, teachers could be seen rounding up students into classrooms.

The shooter then walked through a T-intersection when he fired two rounds and encountered Tate Myre who he killed.

"And at first I didn't know what he was shooting at. This was is when Tate Myre comes in and unknowing to him, he had no idea what was happening," Wagrowski said. "The shooter leveled the gun and just as Tate turned the corner, the shooter fired a round. Tate fell instantly. The shooter took a couple of steps and then leveled the gun again  - and just to shoot Tate again, laying there, shot him. You see Tate's body flinch."

He said that the shooter was hunting for more victims with nearly everyone having found shelter or fled the building. The shooter then went back to the bathroom where (shooting victim) Justin Shilling was.

Wagrowski then detailed the arrest of the shooter as he left the bathroom at the end of the nine-minute rampage.

"Eventually now to first responders deputies had gotten (there) …  as he's walking up to on the shooter just puts his hands up in the air and then goes down to his knees," he said. "As he's doing that yet his realizes he sees something and he yells ‘gun.’ The shooter then lays out on his stomach … and that's what they take him into custody right there."