Georgia Swiftly Charges Father Of School Shooter With Murder, Manslaughter

Just one day after 14-year-old Colt Gray allegedly went on a killing spree at his Georgia high school, state police have arrested his father and charged him with murder because he made an AR-15 available to his son. Police sources told NBC News that Colin Gray gave the rifle to his son as a gift — a move that came after the pair had been questioned by police investigating a tip about someone threatening to shoot up a school.

“These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) director Chris Hosey told reporters on Wednesday. Fifty-four-year-old Colin Gray has been hit with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children. Colt Gray is being held in a youth detention center on four murder charges so far, but will be tried as an adult. 

Police say that, around 10:20 am on Tuesday, Colt Gray used an AR-15 purchased by his father to kill two 14-year-old students and two teachers, and wound another seven students and two teachers. He surrendered immediately upon being confronted by police. The carnage took place at Apalachee High School in Winder, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. “The nine injured, I am very happy to say, will make a full recovery,” said Barrow County Sheriff on Thursday.  

The charges could represent the substantiation of an emerging trend in charging parents who enable their children to access firearms and then use them with horrific results. In an historic first earlier this year, the parents of a 2021 Michigan school-shooter were each convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to secure a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol, while ignoring stark indications that their son’s mental health was spiraling downward. 

More than a year before the Georgia shooting, investigators in neighboring Jackson County were handed a tip from the FBI that led them to question Colt and Colin Gray. The FBI was notified by concerned citizens who’d seen someone on the Discord messaging platform bragging about intentions to go on a middle school shooting spree the next day, and posting photos of firearms. The poster’s username was a Russian translation of “Lanza,” the last name of the perpetrator of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. 

When questioned in May 2023, Colt said he’d used Discord before but that his account had been hacked and he wouldn’t threaten a mass shooting. According to a transcript of the interview, investigator Daniel Miller said, “I gotta take you at your word and I hope you’re being honest with me.” 

Colin Gray told police he owned hunting weapons but kept them locked and inaccessible to his son, adding that “[Colt] knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them.” He also told investigators that his separation from Colt’s mother had taken a toll on the then-13-year-old, and that he’d been subjected to bullying at school. 

An investigator said no arrest was in order due to “inconsistent information” about the Discord account, including indications it had been accessed in multiple Georgia cities and Buffalo, New York. School officials were cautioned to monitor Colt Gray.  “We did not drop the ball at all on this,” Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum tells Associated Press. “We did all we could do with what we had at the time.”

The shooter’s aunt, Annie Brown, told the Washington Post that Colt Gray “was begging for [mental health] help from everybody around him.” She also said she’d texted a relative last month, expressing her unease that Colt had access to firearms, and that Colt’s grandmother had asked a school counselor for help. “[He] starts with a therapist tomorrow,” the grandmother messaged one week before Tuesday’s bloodshed. 

Colt Gray’s mother, Marcee Gray, has a colorful 17-year criminal record across three counties that includes charges of domestic violence, methamphetamine possession, property damage, criminal trespass, driving under the influence, and a civil fraud claim associated with an alleged bad check she and her husband presented for a vehicle purchase. 

Michigan and Georgia’s criminal charges for parents leaving weapons unsecured and accessible to troubled kids should serve as a cautionary tale for those exercising their right of armed self-defense.