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Nessel: Investigation in hands of county prosecutor

Up North Pride
State Attorney General Dana Nessel said Tuesday that the Oakland County prosecutor’s office will continue to lead the investigation into the Oxford High School shootings.

Attorney General Dana Nessel expressed disappointment Tuesday that Oxford school officials turned down her offer to conduct an independent investigation of the school shooting that left four students dead.

Nessel said she’ll follow what’s turned up by Oakland County law enforcement. Nessel said earlier that an inquiry by her office would be truly independent as opposed to an investigation by someone hired by the district. Nessel said she’ll step back now as Oxford works toward recovering from the horrific event.

“I want to give a little grace to the Oxford Community Schools right now,” she said during an online news conference. “They have a lot going on. I have every expectation that eventually they’ll want to work with us and cooperate. I think they want the same thing that we want.”

Nessel said she’ll watch for leads developed by Oakland County officials and her office will cooperate with local law enforcement. She also said she intends to reach out to families and come up with a list of policy recommendations to help avert more school shootings.

“If anything good comes of it, it will be that we can revisit that those policies and see if we need to make changes in those policies,” she said.

Nessel said that should include more gun restrictions, especially making firearms less available to minors.

Rick Pluta is Senior Capitol Correspondent for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He has been covering Michigan’s Capitol, government, and politics since 1987. His journalism background includes stints with UPI, The Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, The (Pontiac, MI) Oakland Press, and WJR. He is also a lifelong public radio listener.