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full screen The convicted mother’s lawyer Shannon Smith pleads during the final days of the trial.. Photo: Mandi Wright/AP/TT
In November 2021, a 15-year-old boy shot dead four schoolmates in Michigan, USA. Now his mother has been convicted of manslaughter for her son’s murder.
The 45-year-old mother is being convicted of failing to stop her son from harming others, which she is required to do under state law.
The conviction on four counts of negligent homicide is the first against an American parent whose child was convicted of a school shooting.
The sentence will be determined on April 9. The woman risks 15 years in prison for each case of murder, so a total of 60 years in prison.
The boy’s father has also been charged with the boy’s murder, but his trial has not yet been held. According to the prosecutor, the parents should have acted on signals that everything was not right.
The gun used in the shooting was purchased by the father just days before the crime, and the mother had taken the son to practice shooting with the weapon.
On the day of the shooting, the parents said no to taking their son home. This despite the fact that a teacher discovered that the 15-year-old sat and drew a drawing with a gun, a bleeding person and words like “blood everywhere”.
Two girls, 14 and 16 years old, and two boys, 16 and 17 years old, were shot dead at the school in Oxford, Michigan. Another seven people were shot.
The now 17-year-old son has confessed to the murders and has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and terrorism.