Karen McDonald's advice to Georgia prosecutor in school shooting: 'Have courage'

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - The mass school shooting in Georgia echoes the 2021 Oxford incident - with allegations that the suspect's father was given the gun he used as a gift.

"My sincere hope is that we wouldn’t see anything like this again," said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. "Horror. Just the idea that anytime something like this happens it’s so difficult to see.

"And then when the details emerged regarding access to the weapon and the prior context, it was heartbreaking."

McDonald was the prosecutor in the case resulting from the Oxford High School shooting where she was successful in charging and convicting the parents, after their son pleaded guilty.

It was considered a landmark case as Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first parents in a US mass shooting to be convicted.

Fast forward to September 2024 and not only is the 14-year-old Georgia teen being charged with four counts of murder, his father is facing related charges after reports surfaced that he bought his son the weapon as a Christmas present.

"I don’t really contemplate it as much as that we set any kind of precedent here," she said. "I’ve processed it more as how tragic it is  and thinking about the Oxford victims."

Related: The Oxford High School shooting

McDonald said until all the evidence is in about the Georgia school shooting, assumptions should not be made.

She’s also clear that convicting parents for a shooting committed by their child is not easy.

"It’s not easy to obtain a conviction on (this set of) facts," McDonald said. "It’s a gross negligence standard for involuntary manslaughter in Michigan, and it shouldn’t be easy. It should be rare - very rare."

She said that not everyone agrees with parents being held accountable for their child’s actions.

James and Jennifer Crumbley appeared in court on June 27 for a hearing on multiple motions related to their case linked to the Oxford High School shooting.

"It’s not lost on me that there was not a wave of support or acceptance of the charges when they were announced," McDonald said. "But I knew looking at all the evidence that we had, that is not released to the public, I knew that you don’t get to walk away from that sort of egregious behavior when it was reasonably foreseeable that your kid was going to hurt himself or somebody else."

McDonald said the ultimate goal is to prevent these shootings from happening. She launched the All of Us Foundation: All of Us Can Prevent Gun Violence.

"It’s exactly what we need because it’s focused on preventing kids from dying," she said.

As prosecutors across the country work these cases they hope these charging decisions send a clear message to parents and guardians.

"We need to talk about how to keep our kids safe and usually that starts with where they get this firearm," she said.

FOX 2: "If you could give the prosecutor in Georgia one piece of advice, what would it be?"

"Boy, that's a hard question," she said. "Do the right thing and have courage."

For more information on McDonald's foundation go HERE to learn about All Of Us Can.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. Inset: The Georgia school shooting suspect and his father, who are both facing charges.