The Macomb County Prosecutor is open to charging the mother of the man who shot at families at a splash pad park in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Michael Nash, 42, wounded nine on Saturday before killing himself at the home he shared with his mother, Kathryn Nash.
During the initial investigation, Kathryn told sheriff’s detectives that her 42-year-old son Michael would stalk their home, brandishing one of his 12 guns and ranting about how the government was spying on them.
Kathryn Nash has since cut off communication with investigators and has retained an attorney.
County Prosecutor Peter Lucido said there’s a possibility Kathryn Nash might face charges because he said “a very interesting door” was opened with the April involuntary manslaughter convictions of Jennifer and James Crumbley.
A law that went into effect this year in Michigan, thanks to Michigan Democrats, is designed to allow judges to confiscate weapons from people like Michael. But the law didn’t stop the shooting because no one, including the mother, asked the court or law enforcement to intervene.
Michigan’s new “red flag” law has so far been used roughly 100 times for court orders to confiscate guns from individuals who pose an immediate risk to themselves or others.
State Senator Mallory McMorrow, instrumental in the passage of several new guns laws in Michigan, said while she understood families might be reluctant to pursue these orders against loved ones, “it’s a tool to help them save their loved one’s life, not arrest them.”
“I understand people may not want to put their loved one in a situation of ‘reporting them’,” McMorrow said, “but it’s important to stress (an extreme risk protection order) acknowledges that the individual has done nothing wrong but that the presence of a firearm, given a mental health crisis, can be deadly.”