Father of suspected Georgia school shooter arrested on second-degree murder charges
Colin Gray, the father of Georgia school shooting suspect Colt Gray, has been arrested, law enforcement announced on Thursday evening.
The 54-year-old is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“These charges stem from knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon,” GBI director Chris Hosey said during a press conference.
Colin Gray reportedly purchased a high-powered, AR 15-style rifle as a holiday gift in December 2023 for his son. The purchase came months after federal and local officials investigated online threats to commit a school shooting, and the father and son were interviewed by law enforcement at their home.
On Wednesday, four people were killed at Apalachee High School and nine others injured. Teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, alongside 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, died in the attack.
Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with murder and will be tried as an adult over the shootings.
In May 2023, the FBI got a tip about online threats on the app Discord regarding a school shooting. It traced the threats to Georgia and forwarded information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, which interviewed the Gray family.
Colin Gray told investigators that he kept hunting guns in the house, but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them. The boy, meanwhile, denied making the online threats.
“Colt expressed concern that someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” according to a police report obtained by The Independent.
Colt Gray also told deputies that “he stopped using Discord because too many people kept hacking his account and he was afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes.”
During the interview, a sheriff’s deputy openly mused about the stakes of the 2023 investigation, saying, “God forbid” if the online threats turned into an actual shooting, according to audio of the interview obtained by CNN.
Further investigation of Colt Gray’s Discord page showed he made the account after he said he’d deleted it, and used a Russian username that “spells out the name Lanza, referring to Adam Lanza, who is the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter in Newton, Conn.,” according to the report.
Police notified local schools but no probable cause for an arrest was found at the time, according to the FBI.
During the time of the police interview, Gray’s parents were going through a divorce, in which the 14-year-old stayed with his father, while his mother took custody of two other children.
Colin Gray will be held in the Barrow County Detention Center, according to the county sheriff’s office.
There is no minimum age requirement to possess a rifle under federal and state firearms law in Georgia, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, but individuals must be 18 or older to buy one.
The military-style AR rifle allegedly used at the high school is a high-powered weapon that has been used in shootings across the country, including the recent assassination attempt against Donald Trump. The assault rifle has been used in an estimated 10 of the 17 deadliest mass shootings since 2012.
The charges against Colin Gray are believed to be the second time in U.S. history where a parent has been charged in connection with an alleged mass shooting committed by a minor, following charges against the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley.
Rhian Lubin contributed reporting to this story.