The 54-year-old father of the 14-year-old suspect accused of killing four people at a high school in the US state of Georgia has been arrested and charged with murder. Colin Gray faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of child cruelty.
Authorities said Thursday night that the charges were directly related to his son’s actions and “allowing him to carry a weapon.”
The boy, Colt Gray, who is due to appear in court on Friday, is accused of killing two teachers and two students in Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, near Atlanta.
He will be charged – as an adult – with four counts of murder.
In Georgia, the law allows prosecutors to charge minors from 13 as adults for certain crimes.
This means they face potentially harsher sentences if found guilty. Authorities are investigating whether Colin Gray bought the AR-style gun as a gift for his son in December 2023, police sources told CBS News.
The charges against the father are considered the most serious charges brought against the parent in this type of case.
In May 2023, the FBI notified local police of online threats related to a school shooting linked to an email address associated with the suspect.
A sheriff’s deputy went to interrogate the boy, who was 13 at the time.
His father told police he had guns in the house, but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them, the FBI said in a statement Wednesday.
Authorities say the threats were made on Discord, a social network popular with video game players, and contained images of guns.
The name on the account profile was in Russian and translated into the last name of the gunman who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
A police incident report describing last year’s questioning of the son and his father was released on Thursday.
A deputy described the boy in the report as “reserved” and “calm” and said he “assured me he never threatened to shoot up a school.”
He claimed to have deleted his Discord account because it had been hacked multiple times.
Colin Gray also told police that his son was being bullied at school and was struggling to cope with his parents’ separation.
Police records show that the boy’s mother and father were going through a divorce and that he was living with his father during the separation.
The teenager often hunts with his father, who told police that he photographed his son with deer blood on his cheek.
The child’s maternal grandfather told The New York Times that he partly blamed the boy’s action on the troubled home life after Gray and his daughter separated.
“I understand my grandson did a horrendous thing – there’s no question about it, and he’s going to pay the price for it,” Charlie Polhamus told the newspaper.
“My grandson did what he did because of the environment that he lived in,” he added.
At Thursday’s news conference, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said all nine injured are expected to make a full recovery.
Some victims had already left the hospital, he said.
Students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14 years of age, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, died in the attack.
Witnesses say the suspect left an algebra class Wednesday morning only to return later and try to enter the classroom.
Some students went to open the locked door, but apparently saw the gun and backed away.
The witnesses said that they then heard a barrage of 10 to 15 shots.
Two school police officers quickly confronted the boy and he immediately surrendered.
These are not the first charges brought against the parents of a school shooting suspect.
In April, the parents of a Michigan teenager who killed four students with a gun they bought for him days before the shooting were convicted and sentenced for their role in the attack.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were both convicted of involuntary manslaughter and each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
It was widely reported in the news as the first time that the parents of a child who carried out a mass shooting were held criminally liable.
Source: BBC News
