Georgia school shooting: Colt Gray appeared in court as more charges planned against suspect, DA says
Apalachee High School shooting suspect and his father Colin Gray both appeared in a Georgia courthouse this morning
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Georgia school mass shooting suspect Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray faced a judge Friday at the Barrow County Courthouse in Georgia for their arraignment.
Judge Currie Mingledorff II told the Apalachee High School shooting suspect that he could face life in prison if convicted on any of the four felony murder counts held against him. The 14-year-old is being tried as an adult, however, the judge ruled out the possibility of a death sentence due to being younger than 18.
Colin Gray, 54, who faced Judge Mingledorff in the same courtroom about 45 minutes after his son, was told he could be sentenced up to 180 years in prison. The dad faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Colt Gray is accused of opening fire on staff and students at Apalachee High School in Winder with an AR-style rifle, resulting in the deaths of two 14-year-old pupils and two teachers on Wednesday.
His father allegedly bought the semi-automatic weapon for his son as a Christmas present.
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Victim ID’d by family
Another victim of the Apalachee High School shooting was identified by her family.
Melany Garcia was shot in the shoulder, her family told WSBTV.
The bullet broke the bone that connects her shoulder to her arm.
“She’s a normal young teen who loves to be with friends, play soccer, and spend time with family, and none of those hobbies will ever be the same now,” they wrote in a statement.
The teen will need to undergo more surgeries.
Her family has started a GoFundMe campaign.
Exclusive: Landlord talks about having Gray family as tenants
A former landlord has detailed about having the parents of Georgia school shooting suspect Colt Gray as tenants.
Justin Rohlich exclusively spoke with the landlord, who talked about how chaotic the parents were from the start. The landlord even had to evict the family after they fell behind in rent.
“The craziest part of all is that they left [their] two German Shepherds,” the landlord recalled on Friday, adding that Colin and Marcee Gray simply ignored his attempts to reunite them. “I imagine the next place where they were renting didn’t allow dogs, so they just left them.”
To find out more, check out the exclusive story.
Parents of school shooting suspect left dogs behind when they were evicted: landlord
EXCLUSIVE: “I imagine the next place where they were renting didn’t allow dogs, so they just left them,” a property owner who leased a home to Colin and Marcee Gray told The Independent.
Majority of viral social media threats since Georgia shooting ‘deemed non-credible’
“The public safety community is responding to an increase in school threat reporting following the shooting at Apalachee High School,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in a joint statement Friday.
Anyone making “specific threats” will be investigated and prosecuted, according to the statement.
“However, school safety hotlines and law enforcement often see increased reporting following a mass shooting incident, as students and the public are more apt to report suspicious activity or concerns. Reposting these online threats can cause undue panic and spread false information.”
Apalachee High’s Friday football game canceled in shooting’s wake
Tonight was supposed to be fun at Apalachee High as the football team got ready to take on Monroe Area, but that has all changed after Wednesday’s shooting.
Now, the game is canceled as the team and community is mourning the loss of two classmates and two teachers.
Head coach Mike Hancock told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he has yet to address his team.
“I want to get them in a room,” Hancock said, “and tell them, ‘Yes this is going to be hard, but we’re going to do this together.’”
One of the victims killed, teacher Richard Aspinwall, was an assistant coach on the team.
“Nothing was above him,” Hancock said. “Just because he was the defensive coordinator, nothing was beneath him. He always was willing to do whatever it took to help our kids and our program.
Colt Gray told police he would never shoot up a school
The teenage suspect in the Georgia mass shooting told police he would never shoot up a school when he was questioned over online threats about a potential school shooting one year before the attack.
Colt Gray, 14, who previously appeared on the FBI’s radar, is accused of opening fire with an AR-style rifle, at Apalachee High School in the city of Winder on Wednesday which left four people – two students and two teachers – dead.
He surrendered to authorities on the scene and will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.
It turns out that police had interviewed Gray and his father Colin Gray, who has also been charged, in May 2023 over “online threats to commit a school shooting,” from the social media platform Discord, which contained photographs of guns, the FBI’s Atlanta office said in a statement.
Read more:
Colt Gray told cops he would never shoot up a school during threat investigation
Colt Gray, the teen suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting in Winder, and his father were interviewed by police in 2023 over online threats to commit a school shooting, the FBI said
County schools set to return next week
Barrow County schools are planning to return to the class next week as they continue to grieve the loss of classmates and teachers at Apalachee High.
District officials announced Friday that schools in the county will return on September 10. County schools have been closed since Wednesday’s shooting.
However, no return has been announced for the students at Apalachee.
“We are still grieving but at the same time we must try our best to navigate this uncharted journey ahead together,” district officials said in a statement. “We believe we need to be together as soon as possible to move forward and to provide some sense of familiarity for our students”
What are Georgia’s gun laws?
Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia, is the latest school across the US to experience a mass shooting as part of the country’s gun violence epidemic, with four killed and scores injured on Wednesday morning.
Apalachee student Colt Gray, 14, has been named as the suspected shooter.
The shooting has prompted scrutiny of Georgia’s gun laws.
Read more:
Georgia gun laws explained as four die in school shooting
Georgia prevents minors from owning guns, but has few restrictions for adults seeking to carry
Police arrest a dozen people for making threats at schools across Georgia
More than a dozen people across Georgia have been arrested for making school threats after Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School.
The threats have led to cancellations and soft lockdowns, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
They have been reported in districts across Georgia.
"I know of students and parents here in this county and around the state are afraid. You all have likely seen reports of incidents of other students making threats at various schools around our state. In each of these incidents, police, law enforcement took charges, they made arrests, acted very swiftly, as we take incidents like this very seriously across this state," director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Chris Hosey said.
Local and state police say any threats will be investigated and prosecuted.
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