close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • New video of police interview with Colt Gray and Colin Gray released
    news

    New video of police interview with Colt Gray and Colin Gray released

    Vaseline Posted on

    play

    Newly released bodycam footage shows that police questioned Colt Gray and his father for more than a year before the 14-year-old fatally shot four people and wounded nine others last week at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.

    Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of murder. His father, Colin Gray, was also arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of second-degree cruelty to children. The pair appeared before a judge in the same Barrow County courtroom on Friday. The two remain behind bars.

    Colt Gray is accused of killing fellow students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, at Apalachee High School on Wednesday.

    Colin Gray is the first parent in Georgia to be charged in an attack allegedly carried out by his child, prosecutors said. “These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a gun,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

    More: How the Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia unfolded: Full timeline of events

    The video shows the father and son interacting with Jackson County Sheriff’s Office officers in May 2023, in response to a tip about online threats to commit a school shooting, which included photos of weapons.

    The threats were posted to a social media Discord account that the FBI traced to Colt Gray via an email address. County authorities alerted local schools and told Colin Gray to keep his son out of school, but there was no probable cause for an arrest, the FBI’s Atlanta Division said.

    In the video, obtained by USA TODAY, Gray told investigators that the guns in the home were accessible to his son, but that he wanted to teach him how to use guns safely.

    “He knows how dangerous guns are, what they can do and what not to use them,” said the elder Gray, who wore a silver cross necklace and held a can as he spoke to police outside.

    “We shoot a lot. We hunt a lot of deer. He shot his first deer this year,” Gray said. He told investigators that a photo on his phone showed his son “with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer,” according to the video.

    The elder Gray said he was “stunned” by the thought that his son had made the threats, and that he and his son both took it very seriously.

    Vigil for murdered teacher: Romanian community in Georgia mourns teacher killed in Apalachee shooting

    “I get furious when he does that and then all the weapons are gone.”

    Months after the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley were sentenced to at least a decade in prison in April, the charges against Colin Gray join a growing trend of parents being held accountable when their children commit mass shootings.

    Colt Gray linked to username referencing Sandy Hook shooter

    Investigators also noted the Discord account’s username, which is Russian letters that translate to Lanza, a reference to Adam Lanza, the gunman who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

    The teen denied making the online threats, saying he last used a Discord account that has since been deleted several months earlier. “All I have is TikTok and I just go on there and watch videos,” he said.

    Colin Gray told officers his son was being “bullied” at school.

    He said that during a visit to the school three days earlier, he had told the principal that his son “gets irritable under pressure” and “can’t really think straight.” He had asked the school to “put their arms around him and get him through seventh grade.”

    According to the video, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputy told Colin Gray that the Discord account was pinging his old address.

    Gray responded that he and his son moved out after being evicted from the family home. His wife, Marcee Gray, had taken the couple’s two youngest children and moved in with their mother, while he and Colt lived in a rental home. “He had a hard time dealing with the separation and everything at first,” Gray said.

    The video was released days after reports that Marcee Gray called the Apalachee High School counselor about an “extreme emergency” and said her son needed to be found immediately the morning of the shooting. Gray made the 10-minute call about a half-hour before her son allegedly opened fire, the Washington Post reported.

    Charles Polhamus, Colt Gray’s grandfather, told the New York Post that Marcee Gray rushed to the school after receiving a text from her son that read, “I’m sorry, Mom.” Brown and Polhamus declined to comment to USA TODAY. Marcee Gray could not be reached for comment.

    Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. You can reach her via email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like