The parents of a Michigan teenager accused of murdering four fellow high school students were taken into custody on Saturday, a day after each was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the campus mass shooting.

Authorities began searching for James and Jennifer Crumbley after Oakland County prosecutors announced the charges on Friday, saying the Crumbleys bought the gun for their son as a Christmas present and then ignored warning signs that may have presaged such a massacre.

Detroit police said in the early hours of Saturday that they had taken the couple into custody.

The police found the two at what “looked like a residential building”, Detroit police spokesman Rudy Harper said.

“We arrested them,” Harper said when asked if the parents turned themselves in, adding they were trying to escape when they were caught.

Detroit Police chief James White said the couple had not broken into the building where they were arrested, but had been let in by somebody.

The couple’s 15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley, is being held without bail and has been charged as an adult on suspicion of carrying out the deadliest US school shooting of 2021 on Tuesday at the Oxford High School, about 60km north of Detroit. His parents were expected to appear for a Friday afternoon arraignment but stopped responding to calls from their attorneys.