In addition to four counts of first-degree murder, the young man who opened fire on his classmates earlier this week in Oxford, Mich., is being charged with terrorism.
Tuesday afternoon, the 15-year-old used a 9mm pistol his father had purchased just three days earlier and walked down the hallways of Oxford High School firing 30 shots in all.
On Friday, his parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter for contributing to the tragedy.
Not only did they fail to intervene when evidence was produced showing their son’s intentions to commit violence, but they also failed to prevent him access to the semi-automatic weapon he used.
THE CHARGE of terrorism is apt.
Students lucky enough already to be in class, huddled in the corners of their classrooms, which had been locked when word got out of the mayhem.
Four high-schoolers have died from the incident. Seven others were injured, three remain in stable condition.
Students without physical injuries are victims, too.
“What about all the children who ran, screaming, hiding under desks?” said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. “What about all the children at home right now who can’t eat and can’t sleep and can’t imagine a world where they could ever set foot back in that school? Those are victims, too, and so are their families, and so is the community. And the charge of terrorism reflects that.”
Violence of any sort results in long-lasting and many-pronged trauma.
A day after Tuesday’s attack, one parent reported that his son was battling guilt about not being able to help as the violence unfolded just outside his classroom door.
Oxford High School junior Olivia Hoffman had just sat down in her fifth-hour class when she heard screaming in the hallway. Then, gunshots.
“It sounded like the shots were right outside the door,” she said in an interview with the Washington Post.
Hoffman was scared for herself, but it was the screams outside the door she remembers most. “I was scared and worried for the people around me, the people in the hallway,” she said.
These wounds will not heal easily.
