Police question Detroit artist to see if he had ‘role’ in hiding Ethan Crumbley’s parents
The artist who owns the Detroit studio where Ethan Crumbley’s parents were caught hiding out has been questioned by police who also searched his home, according to authorities and his attorney.
Andrzej Sikora, 65, was interviewed for two hours Monday night “to determine if he played a role” in hiding the couple who were eventually busted early Saturday, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.
“Immediately after the questioning, Sheriff’s Detectives went to Sikora’s Troy home and executed a search warrant, seizing several digital devices for examination,” the sheriff’s office said.
“The issue for Detectives is what did Sikora know and when did he know it,” the force said.
Sikora has insisted that he had no idea the Crumbleys were still in his building in Detroit, about 50 miles from their home in Oxford.
He also said he did not know that they were wanted on involuntary manslaughter charges for helping their 15-year-old son, who has been charged with murdering four classmates in the deadliest school shooting of the year.
Sikora has not been charged, officials stressed.
“The information will … be presented to prosecutors to determine if charges are appropriate,” the sheriff’s office said.
Sikora’s attorney, Clarence Dass, said his client “maintains his innocence throughout this process and is fully cooperating with law enforcement to assist in their investigation.”
Crumbley, 15, was taken into custody last Tuesday after the mass shooting at Oxford High School that left four of his classmates dead and seven other people injured, including a teacher.
On Friday, prosecutors charged his parents, James, 45, and Jennifer, 43, accusing them of buying the teen the handgun he used as an early Christmas present and ignoring warnings that he planned a massacre.
Police, FBI agents and the US Marshals Service began searching for the couple before they were found in the building that houses Sikora’s art studio.
An attorney for the Crumbleys has said the couple were not attempting to flee law enforcement and had planned to turn themselves in.
The pair both pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter at an arraignment on Saturday and were ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail.
They are being held in the same jail as their son, who has also pleaded not guilty.
Also Monday night, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel revealed that Oxford school officials knocked back her offer to hold an independent review into failings that allowed Crumbley to remain in school.
She said she was “disappointed” that the troubled authority “instead have hired a private security firm who reports only to the district.”
She shared a video clip in which she told CNN that she hopes the “school district cares as much about the safety of their students as they do shielding themselves from civil liability.”
The offer came as Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald admitted that “it’s possible” that school officials could also face criminal charges tied to the shootings.
A teacher had raised a red flag about Crumbley on Monday — the day before the shooting — and the boy and his parents were called in to a meeting after another educator found a drawing he did of someone getting shot.
The warnings were not reported to law enforcement, and the teen was allowed to return to classes — hours before the massacre, where he allegedly used the gun his parents had bought him on Black Friday.
With Post wires
