Oakland County Prosecutor sees many similarities between Oxford school shooting, Georgia school shooting cases
(CBS DETROIT) — Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald says the Georgia shooting case will see similar arguments that were made during the Oxford High School shooting trial.
The father of the Georgia school shooting suspect is facing felony charges in connection to the shooting that killed four and injured others.
This comes months after the landmark case here in Michigan where the parents of the oxford high school shooter were convicted of involuntary man slaughter.
The case will be another test of the limits of parental blame.
"Unfortunately, there are a lot of similarities," said Karen McDonald, Oakland County prosecutor.
McDonald said, like in the oxford case, they will have to prove if the violence was foreseeable.
"There was absolutely some notice here that there was a concern," McDonald said. "In fact, a visit by law enforcement to parent. And just keep in mind this is an AR-15 and a 14-year-old young man. The standard magazine holds 30 rounds."
Colin Gray was arrested for allowing his son to have the gun, knowing he was a threat to himself and others.
"Certainly, when you have a 14-year-old who cannot drive and cannot purchase a weapon like that, and dad reportedly was on notice that there was a concern and reportedly also said that the minor did not have any access to weapons, that was the year prior - it would be hard to argue that dad didn't know that there might be a concern," McDonald said.
She said learning how this tragedy unfolded could help prevent future school shootings.
"We need to ask the question about where that minor got such a deadly weapon, because we need to know that in terms of how do we prevent this going forward," McDonald said.
The cases of the suspected shooter and his father will be presented to a grand jury, which is scheduled to meet next month.
