Live updates: Ethan Crumbley to be sentenced for Oxford, Michigan, school shooting

Linda Watson, whose son Aiden was shot during the Oxford High School shooting, described the horrifying moment she learned what had happened.

“That was a moment I will never forget,” she said during her victim impact statement ahead of shooter Ethan Crumbley’s sentencing.

She added that “it was snowing that day, so I told him to bury himself in the snow.”

Watson described racing to find her son, who had been driven to a nearby business. “Even though it was only minutes, it felt like a lifetime before I found Aiden,” she said.

Aiden had been shot in the leg. “There was a lot of blood,” his mother said. “It covered his shoe in his pants.”

Watson stayed overnight at the hospital with her son. “I was so grateful when he woke up,” she said. “I put my head on his chest just to hear his heartbeat, grateful he was alive because some parents didn’t have that the next morning.”

Aiden has faced a long and painful journey to recover from his injuries, Watson said. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, he couldn’t walk and needed around-the-clock care, including help getting to the toilet or to the shower. He’s also experienced emotional aftershocks of the shooting, like debilitating panic attacks.

Watson also described the financial hardships imposed by her son’s medical needs.

At one point, “I couldn’t stop throwing up because I didn’t know if we were going to be okay financially,” she said.

Even two years after the massacre, Aiden still hasn’t been able to return to school full term because of the emotional and physical impacts of his injuries, Watson said. He still experiences chronic pain and nerve damage.

“My son will have to live with pain, trauma, and limitations because of this forever,” she said. “So too, should the shooter have to deal with the consequences of his actions by being incarcerated for the rest of his life.”