A woman who used to live in the same housing complex as the 15-year-old charged with killing four students with a handgun and injuring several others said she called Child Protective Services (CPS) on the family years earlier to warn them about potential neglect.
Kayla LeMieux told the Detroit Free Press that she had called CPS anonymously on the parents of the suspected school shooter, who would often leave their son home alone while they went out drinking in bars. Their son would have been 8 or 9 years old when this was happening.
“When they were gone, he would come knock on our door,” LeMieux told the outlet. “They didn’t leave him with a phone.”
She said the young boy would ask her to call his parents. LeMieux worked as a restaurant server with the boy’s mother, who along with his father have been arrested in connection with the shooting. They have both pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. LeMieux said she was friends with the mother and would hang out with her frequently, but the two fell out due to LeMieux’s concern for how the son was being treated.
“It was really when I finally started to say more, because I was just like, even after calling CPS, they were still doing it and even me saying something to them, they were still like ‘Oh he is fine,’” LeMieux told the Free Press.
LeMieux gave the outlet what she said were Facebook messages between her and the suspected shooter’s mother where they discussed LeMieux’s concern about leaving the young boy alone while his parents went out drinking.
LeMieux told the Free Press that she never learned whether CPS had taken any action regarding the child being left home alone. State officials couldn’t give the outlet information on the report.
“CPS complaints are confidential by law,” a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services told the outlet.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, the parents of the suspected shooter were arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter because they allegedly made the gun used in the school shooting available to the suspect. The Daily Wire reported:
The suspect, a 15-year-old white male that The Daily Wire is not naming due to company policy about not giving notoriety to alleged mass murderers, is being charged as an adult with two dozen crimes, including murder, attempted murder, and terrorism for the attack this week Oxford High School in Oakland County.
Four students were killed after the suspect opened fire using a handgun that was recently purchased by the suspect’s father.
“The parents were the only individuals in the position to know the access to weapons,” Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said Thursday. The gun “seems to have been just freely available to that individual.”
The parents were arrested after leaving town, which their attorney said was “for their own safety” and not them fleeing authorities.
“The [couple] left town on the night of the tragic shooting for their own safety,” the couple’s attorneys told the Free Press. “On Thursday night we contacted the Oakland County prosecutor to discuss this matter and to advise her that [the couple] would be turning themselves in to be arraigned. Instead of communicating with us, the prosecutor held a press conference to announce charges.