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    • What We Know About the Alleged Gunman in the Georgia Shooting
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    What We Know About the Alleged Gunman in the Georgia Shooting

    Vaseline Posted on

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    A 14-year-old is accused of carrying out the deadliest high school shooting in Georgia this year, killing four people and wounding nine others, authorities said.

    Police said the suspected gunman, Colt Gray, opened fire Wednesday morning at Apalachee High School in Winder, a rural town about an hour northeast of Atlanta with a population of just under 20,000. Police arrived within minutes and confronted the teen, who surrendered and was soon arrested, officials said, adding that he will be charged with murder and prosecuted as an adult.

    The shooting left two students and two teachers dead: Mason Schermerhorn, 14, Christian Angulo, 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.

    The shooter used an AR-style weapon, according to Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who said authorities are investigating how the weapon was obtained. Last year, local police spoke to Gray and his father about online threats to commit a school shooting. There was no probable cause for an arrest at the time, officials said.

    Here’s what we know so far about the alleged shooter:

    FBI: Accused shooter questioned about online threats in school shooting

    The teen had previously been on police’s radar after he was anonymously reported to the FBI last year and linked to several online threats, the federal agency said Wednesday.

    In May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center was notified of online threats to commit a school shooting at an unknown location, posted by federal agents on X. The threats contained images of weapons, and the FBI determined the messages originated in Georgia, specifically Jackson County.

    The FBI turned the evidence over to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, which interviewed Gray, who was 13 at the time, and his father, who said he had shotguns in the home but his son didn’t have access to them. There was no probable cause at the time for an arrest or additional law enforcement action, the post said.

    Jackson County law enforcement passed information on to local schools. It is unclear whether schools in Barrow County, including Apalachee High School, were aware of the threats and law enforcement’s previous interactions with Gray.

    During an evening press conference, Hosey said the GBI is working with the FBI to find a link between the online threats and Wednesday’s deadly shooting.

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    Have authorities identified a motive?

    Police declined to say Wednesday whether they had determined what led to the shooting, stressing that the investigation was still in its early stages.

    “This is a very, very fluid investigation,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said at a news conference outside the school. “What you see behind us is something malicious.”

    However, Smith told reporters he was not aware of any connection between the suspected shooter and the victims.

    What clues are the authorities investigating?

    In addition to the online threats posted last year, authorities say they are investigating whether the teen had acquaintances involved in the shooting and whether there were interactions between Gray, his family and Child Protective Services.

    Hosey told reporters there is no evidence that another shooter was involved in the incident, adding that authorities will investigate any leads about possible accomplices of the shooter.

    “We are following up on all possible leads as we investigate to ensure that if there are any employees involved, we find them and identify them,” he said.

    Hosey also told reporters Wednesday that investigators are aware of “prior contacts” the state Department of Children and Family Services had with “the suspect and his family.”

    “We are also investigating this to see if there is a connection with today’s incident,” he said.

    Gray makes his first appearance on Friday

    Gray was taken overnight to the Regional Youth Detention Center in Gainesville, Glenn Allen, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, told USA TODAY. Gray is scheduled to appear in court virtually at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Allen said.

    It was not immediately clear whether Gray was represented by a lawyer.

    Schools in Barrow County have canceled classes for the remainder of the week as investigators try to determine if there are any active threats to schools in the region and across the state of Georgia.

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