(CBS DETROIT) – Oakland County officials have tentatively selected Guidepost Solutions LLC to conduct a review of the county’s response to the deadly Oxford High School shooting.
Officials say the company will work with other partners, including the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Team (ALERRT) Center and Threat Suppression Inc. More than three years after the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting, four students and six others were killed. teacher injured.
The province says the selection will become official after a negotiated contract is signed, according to a news release.
The findings will be available to the public in mid-2025.
“Oakland County unanimously supported funding the Oxford High School post-action shooting report,” commission Chairman David T. Woodward said in a statement. “We hope we never experience these tragedies. But when they do occur, we have a duty and responsibility to review and evaluate our collective response. The goal is simple: learn and improve so we can make our community safer. ”
County officials say the review will examine law enforcement response, EMS, fire and emergency management, as well as pre-incident training, and make recommendations to improve preparedness and response efforts for future incidents. Guidepost Solutions will also engage community input through town halls, listening sessions and interviews with victims, families, first responders and other community members.
“We are committed to an open and thorough investigation into the county’s response to the tragic shootings at Oxford High School by law enforcement, emergency management, and all county departments activated in the moments, days and months following the shootings three years ago,” says Oakland County. Director David Coulter said in a statement. “The Oxford families and the extended community deserve this assessment and we must ensure we apply best practice going forward with contingency plans that we hope we never have to use.”
The firm was hired by the Oxford Community Schools district board in 2022 to assess the district’s response to the shooting. The 572-page report, released in October 2023concluded that the shooter “was not identified as a threat because individuals at Oxford High School failed to recognize on November 30, 2021 that the shooter’s behavior, statements, and drawings suggested that he could cause physical harm at the school.”
The shooter, Ethan Crumbley, serves one life sentence for the fatal shooting. Earlier this year, his defense team submitted a motion in an attempt to get a new sentence.
The shooter’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were convicted of involuntary manslaughterand became the first parents in the US to be held responsible for a school shooting committed by their child. The Crumbleys have had ever since appeal lawyers. On December 2, Jennifer Crumbley asked a judge to overturn her conviction in a new motion filed in Oakland County Circuit Court.
In November, the teacher injured in the shooting, Molly Darnell, filed a lawsuit against the district and several former school officials, alleging that the district and its administrators had a duty to protect district employees and students from foreseeable threats, including a mass shooting.
Darnell, who produced emotional testimonies During the shooter’s Miller Hearing in July 2023 and during the trials of Jennifer and James Crumbley, she was shot in the left shoulder and had to use her vest as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
In recent weeks, the parents of the four murdered students, Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre and Hana St. Juliana, have called for a national investigation into the shooting. The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office did just that agreed to cooperate with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on the research.
Nessel’s office said it was in discussions with state lawmakers and the governor’s office “to ensure the office has adequate resources for a comprehensive, timely review of the Oxford case” and looked forward to working together with the District Attorney’s Office and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
