MARSHALL COUNTY, Ky. (WPSD/The Washington Post) — The lead prosecutor in the case against Marshall County High School shooting suspect Gabriel Parker says he may not be the only one to blame.
That’s what Commonwealth Attorney Mark Blankenship told The Washington Post in an article published Wednesday. That news comes as Parker is due back in court on Friday.
The article says Blankenship is still considering charges against Parker’s stepfather. Court documents and police testimony say Parker told police he got his stepfather’s 9 mm pistol he used during the shooting out of a closet at his house. Blankenship told The Washington Post he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about how simple it would have been to keep the gun out of Parker’s hands.
Blankenship told The Washington Post he’d have to prove “gross indifference.”
Simply put, the prosecution would have to prove Parker’s stepfather saw warning signs and failed to store the gun properly.
In a taped court hearing, from just two days after the shooting detectives testified that Parker not only had access to his stepfather’s gun a prior to the shooting, but contemplated suicide in December of 2017.
Court documents say the day of the shooting Parker’s stepfather told police he checked the closet. That’s where he normally stored the gun, and it wasn’t there when he looked.
Parker’s stepfather also told police he didn’t notice the teen’s behavior had changed or that anything traumatic had happened to him, and nothing made him suspect Parker was planning a school shooting.
To read The Washington Post article, click here.
