The 14-year-old suspect in the shooting that killed four people at a Georgia high school, as well as his father, who was arrested for letting his son to possess a firearm, will remain in jail after their attorneys declined to request bail on Friday.
Colt Gray, who faces four charges of murder, is accused of killing two classmates and two instructors on Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. His father, Colin Gray, is facing similar charges in the latest effort by prosecutors to hold parents accountable for their children’s acts in school shootings.
“You don’t have to have been physically injured in this to be a victim,” District Attorney Brad Smith said outside the Barrow County courtroom. “Everybody in this community is a victim.” “Every child at that school was a victim.”
The father and son appeared in back-to-back hearings Friday morning, with approximately 50 people in the courtroom, including members of the media and sheriff’s officers. Workers had placed boxes of tissues along the benches. Some victims’ family members embraced in the front row, and one lady held a teddy animal.
During his hearing, Colt Gray, dressed in khaki trousers and a green shirt, was informed of his rights, as well as the charges and punishments he faced for the shooting at his school. He was led out in chains around his wrists and ankles.
The judge then summoned the boy back to the courtroom to rectify a previous declaration that his misdeeds may result in death. Because he is a minor, the highest sentence he might receive is life without parole.
Colin Gray was then led into court clad in a gray-striped prison uniform. Colin Gray, 54, was charged with the shooting on Thursday and answered questions in a barely audible croak, revealing his age and stating that he completed 11th grade and earned a high school equivalency certificate.
Colin Gray has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder in connection to the incident. According to the arrest warrants, he caused the deaths of people “by providing a firearm to Colt Gray with the knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others.”
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The accusations come five months after Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first to be convicted of a mass school shooting in the United States. They were sentenced to at least ten years in jail for failing to secure a handgun at home and ignoring warning signals of their son’s worsening mental health before he murdered four pupils in 2021. The Georgia shootings have also reignited discussion about gun storage rules, leaving parents wondering how to communicate to their children about school shootings and trauma.
The father and son’s hearings occurred as police in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody claimed schools in the area and around the country have received threats of violence since the Apalachee High School massacre, according to a statement. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation also reported that multiple threats were made to schools around the state this week.
According to arrest warrants acquired by The Associated Press, Colt Gray is suspected of firing a “black semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle” during the attack. Authorities have not provided a motive or described how he acquired the pistol or transported it inside the school.
He was accused as an adult with the killings of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Schermerhorn’s neighbor recalled him as an inquisitive child. Aspinwall and Irimie both taught math, and Aspinwall also coached the school’s football team. Irimie, who moved from Romania, volunteered at a local church and taught dancing.
Smith added that further charges would be brought against Colt Gray. When the adolescent was arrested on Wednesday, officials didn’t know the names or conditions of the nine persons wounded in the incident, so they couldn’t originally pursue charges, he said.
Colt Gray denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when officials interrogated him last year about a frightening social media post, according to a sheriff’s report released Thursday. The report said that detectives were unable to arrest anybody due to conflicting information about the origin of the post. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said that she studied the May 2023 report and found nothing that would have warranted filing charges at the time.
The assault was the most recent of hundreds of school shootings in the United States in recent years, including particularly lethal incidents in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom murders sparked heated arguments over gun regulation, but national gun laws have remained largely unchanged.
It was the 30th mass shooting in the United States this year, according to a database kept by The Associated Press and USA Today in collaboration with Northeastern University. At least 127 individuals have perished in such murders, which are characterized as instances in which four or more people die within 24 hours, excluding the murderer – the same criteria used by the FBI.
The cases will be brought before a grand jury, whose next hearing is set for October 17, Smith said. Grand jury sessions are not open to the general public or the media. If the grand jury indicts Colt and Colin Gray, they will be scheduled for arraignment. Colt Gray has another hearing on December 4.