The father of school shooting suspect Colt Gray recruited his sister, a retired police lieutenant, to speak to the teenager after they were investigated by the FBI, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Gray, 14, is accused of killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday.
His father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged in connection with the murders after admitting to authorities that he bought the gun used in the attack for his son.
Interview transcripts reveal that his sister is a former police lieutenant in Henderson, Nevada, who was asked by Colin to speak to the troubled teen after authorities investigated an FBI tip.
Colt and his father were interviewed after the sheriff received a tip from the FBI that Gray, then 13, “possibly threatened to shoot up a high school tomorrow.”
Interview transcripts reveal Colt Gray recruited his retired lieutenant sister, Marian Gray, to speak to the teen after they came under investigation by the FBI (pictured: Marian and her mother, who is the alleged shooter’s grandmother)
Colt Gray, 14, (pictured), is accused of fatally shooting two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday.
The threat was made on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers, according to the sheriff’s office incident report.
Transcripts of her interview with officers show she had tried to tell Colt that a “ride with him” would “change his life.”
“We’ve had a long conversation,” Colin told Jefferson County deputies in 2023. “My sister is a retired lieutenant in Las Vegas.
“We had a very long conversation. I went to him and told Colt: ‘I’m telling you right now: one trip with him will change your life.’”
Her sister, Marian Gray, rose through the ranks of the Henderson Police Department and left the force in 2020 as a lieutenant.
Records show she moved from Nevada to Canton, Georgia, in 2020 and began working as a 911 dispatcher.
The aunt of the suspected school shooter did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.
This comes after family members revealed that Colt’s mother, Marcee, received a text message from her son saying, “I’m sorry,” on the day of the shooting and tried to warn authorities.
Colt’s grandmother also claimed she had warned the counselor a week before the teen returned to school.
Colt Gray, 14, is accused of fatally shooting two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. His father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with a felony in connection with the shootings after admitting to providing his son with the gun used in the attack.
Transcripts of Colin’s interview with officers show he had tried to tell his son Colt that a “trip” with his retired lieutenant sister Marian would “change his life” (pictured: Colin left, Marian right)
Interview transcripts also revealed that Colin told police his son was not a loner and that he was being bullied at school and that his peers were saying he was gay, according to a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department report.
The report also details that Colt told his father, “I’m a good boy, daddy, I would never do that,” and said, “I don’t want to be involved in any of that.”
The teenager reportedly believed he would make “a great detective” because of his cyber skills.
Colt was introduced to the world of guns by his father, who claims he took him hunting out of fear that he might get involved in a school shooting and be unable to defend himself.
The documents state: ‘I introduced him to bow hunting, then a pellet gun, then a .22 caliber.
‘Gun safety was a part of this because I’m worried about him and the school, and you never know what can happen.’
Conflicting evidence about the post’s origin left investigators unable to arrest anyone, the report said.
Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the May 2023 report and found nothing to warrant filing charges at that time.
Pictured: Colin and Marian Gray posing for their family portrait with their siblings and parents.
“We didn’t fail at any point,” Mangum told The Associated Press in an interview. “We did everything we could with what we had at the time.”
The teen was interviewed after the sheriff received a tip from the FBI that Gray “possibly threatened to shoot up a high school tomorrow.”
According to the sheriff’s office incident report, he made the threat on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers.
The FBI’s information pointed to a Discord account associated with an email address linked to Colt Gray, the report said.
The account had a username written in Russian, and the translation of the letters spelled out the name Lanza, a reference to Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.
Gray denied being the author of the threats and told police he had closed his Discord account after being repeatedly hacked. He expressed concern that someone might make such accusations about him.
Professor Richard Aspinwall was identified as one of the four victims of the shooting. Christina Irimie was also identified as a victim.
Mason Schermerhorn, 14, an autistic student at Apalachee High School, was the first victim to be identified. Christian Angulo, 14, also lost his life in the senseless shooting.
“He knows the severity of guns and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” Colin told authorities.
The boy was reportedly obsessed with other infamous school shooters, such as Parkland, Florida, killer Nikolas Cruz.
Investigators wrote that no arrests were made due to “inconsistent information” on the Discord account, which had profile information in Russian and a trail of digital evidence indicating it had been accessed in different cities in Georgia, as well as in Buffalo, New York.
Authorities closed the case after failing to prove Gray was logged into the Discord account and finding no grounds to seek the court order needed to seize the family’s guns.
Father and son appeared in Barrow County Superior Court on Friday, handcuffed and shackled in front of their bodies.
Colt reportedly told police “I did it” when he was read his Miranda rights after his arrest Wednesday.
The teenager, dressed in a green T-shirt and gray sweatpants, kept his head down, his hair covering his face, and spoke quietly only to Judge Currie Mingledorff, answering “yes sir” when asked to confirm his name.
Georgia school shooter Colt Gray made his first court appearance Friday
Judge Mingledorff called Gray to correct a statement he had made, telling him, “I wanted to make it clear to you that the penalty does not include death, but rather life imprisonment with or without the possibility of parole.”
A 2005 Supreme Court decision bans the execution of criminals who were under 18 when they committed their crimes.
His father cried as he appeared shortly after his son in the same courtroom, rocking back and forth.
Colin Gray shuffled in, dressed in a prison-issued striped T-shirt and tracksuit and shackled like his son. He said his name in a hoarse voice, confirming his age and that he could read and write.
Judge Mingledorff informed the elder Gray that he could face up to 30 years in prison for each count of felony murder, 10 years each for involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children, for a maximum sentence of 180 years.