Georgia School Shooting Suspect’s Father Arrested: What We Know

The father of the 14-year-old student accused of opening fire at a Georgia high school on Wednesday has been arrested and charged on various counts, including second-degree murder.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced Thursday that Colin Gray, 54, had been arrested in connection to the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. His son, Colt Gray, has been accused of killing four and injuring nine in the gunfire.
Colin Gray was charged on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to GBI. The division’s director, Chris Hosey, told reporters at a news conference Thursday night that the charges “stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon.”
“His charges are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” Hosey added.
In Georgia, murder in the second degree is punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison. Involuntary manslaughter, which means that a person causes the death of another without any intention to do so, is punishable by one to 10 years in prison.
Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder and is being held in the Gainesville Region Youth Detention Center. Under state law, a felony murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of life in prison with or without parole. Felony murder convictions can also result in the death penalty in Georgia.
Investigators said Wednesday that officers at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office had questioned Colt Gray and his father in May 2023 after the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received “several anonymous tips” about online threats made to commit a school shooting. At the time, Colt had denied making the threats, and investigators found “no probable cause for arrest” or additional action, according to a statement from FBI Atlanta.
Colin Gray told officers at that time that he had “hunting guns in the house” but that his son “did not have unsupervised access to them.” In a transcript of the interview obtained by the Associated Press (AP), Colin Gray told officers that his son “knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them.”
Investigators said that Colt Gray used a semi-automatic assault-style rifle in the attack.
GBI said in an update to Facebook on Thursday that the autopsies of the four victims would be performed by the division’s Medical Examiner’s Office later that day. The victims have been identified as Mason Schermerhorn, 14, Christian Angulo, 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Schermerhorn and Angulo were students at the high school; Aspinwall and Irimie were teachers.
Newsweek reached out to GBI via email for more information late Thursday night.
The nine victims who were hospitalized in the shooting are expected to recover from their injuries.
“This is a very difficult time, as we know, for students and parents, and so many, I know of students and parents here in this county and around this state are afraid,” Hosey told reporters at Thursday’s news conference, adding that law enforcement responded to reports of threats made to several schools across Georgia on Thursday.
“This is a time for all of us as a community and a state to come together and remain vigilant,” Hosey added. “Students must be supported and encouraged here in this community and across this state to contact a member of their school faculty with any and all concerns of suspicious activity that they may see.”
Wednesday’s shooting marks the 30th mass killing in the United States this year, according to data compiled by AP, USA Today and Northeastern University. The FBI defines a mass shooting as gunfire in which four or more people die within 24 hours, not including the killer.
The first time that parents were criminally charged in connection to their child committing a mass shooting was in Oxford, Michigan, where James and Jennifer Crumbley were convicted of manslaughter and later sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison in the spring. The Crumbleys’ son, Ethan, was sentenced to life in prison in December for killing four of his classmates in November 2021.
Update 09/05/24, 9:34 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.