Colt Gray received as a Christmas gift from his father the gun he allegedly used to shoot and kill four people at his Georgia high school.
The 14-year-old was arrested Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, minutes after authorities said he opened fire on students and teachers.
Police sources said that CNN Last Thursday, the teenage shooter received the weapon for his December vacation.
His father, Colin Gray, has told authorities that he bought the gun for the boy himself. Colin Gray has not yet made any public comment on the shooting.
Gray has been charged with four felony counts of murder and will be tried as an adult, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed.
Colt Gray received as a Christmas gift from his father the gun he used to shoot four people dead at his Georgia high school.
Gray has been charged with four felony counts of murder and will be tried as an adult, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed.
The teen and his father were interviewed in 2023 by local police in connection with online threats about carrying out a school shooting made on the gaming social media platform Discord, according to investigators.
The two Grays told investigators they had made no threats. The father also told officers he had hunting weapons stored in a safe at the home and that his son did not have access to them.
Gray appears in the booking photo with long, dyed blonde hair, a far cry from the smiling, baby-faced boy portrayed in his high school yearbook just two years earlier.
The boy reportedly had an obsession with other infamous school shooters, such as Parkland, Florida, killer Nikolas Cruz.
Two students and two teachers were dead inside the school building, on their first day of classes after summer break, when he left his AR-style weapon behind.
Students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, and teachers Richard Aspenwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, were identified as the deceased.
When police searched the teen’s Georgia home after the bloodbath, they reportedly found clues that the teen was “obsessed” with mass shootings, specifically the 2018 Parkland massacre that left 17 people dead.
Gray was known to the FBI after they received several tips about him last year.
The 14-year-old was arrested Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, minutes after authorities said he opened fire on students and teachers.
A large police presence descended on Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday after authorities said the student opened fire, wounding nine and killing four.
In May 2023, Jackson County deputies questioned Gray and his father about a Discord channel believed to be linked to the 13-year-old that allegedly made threats about a school shooting.
The Discord 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, officials said.
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.
According to the NYT, Gray’s father, Colin, told investigators at the time that his son “knows the gravity of guns and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them.”
Colin reportedly told officers he would be “really upset” if he found out the allegations about his son’s threats were true and that “all the guns would be gone.”
Online, her aunt swore she would have “shed all her blood” while claiming she had been subjected to “abuse” all her life. Those comments were deleted last night after a barrage of negative reactions.
Gray remains in juvenile custody in Georgia, awaiting his initial court appearance, scheduled for Friday morning. He will be charged as an adult, sheriff’s deputies said.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Gray immediately turned himself in when he was confronted by school resource officers at the scene.
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.
Professor Richard Aspinwall was identified as one of the four victims of the shooting. Christina Irimie was also identified as a victim.
Sheriff Smith revealed that Wednesday was Gray’s first “real day” at Apalachee High.
He said, ‘He was a new student at Barrow County Schools, he had enrolled about two weeks ago. It was his second day of school. He had been there before, he left early that day and this was his first full day of school.’
According to authorities, Gray opened fire at approximately 10:23 a.m., injuring at least 13 people as frenzied scenes took over the school.
Footage showed students streaming onto campus as terrified parents ran to find their children, with one mother describing the scene outside the school as pure “chaos”.
Lyela Sayerath, a junior at the school, said she was sitting next to Colt Gray in algebra class minutes before the shooting began.
She told CNN that Colt left the classroom at the start of his class at 9:45 a.m., about 30 minutes before the active shooter alerts sounded.
Gray did not ask permission to go to the bathroom, she said, leading her to initially think he was simply skipping class, before an announcement over the loudspeaker told teachers to check their emails.
Shortly afterward, Sayerath said, Gray returned outside his classroom and a student stood up to open the door for him before jumping back upon seeing his gun.
“I guess he saw that we weren’t going to let him in. And I guess the door to the classroom next door was open, so I think he started shooting in the classroom,” he said.
Sayerath said Gray proceeded to fire a series of bullets “one after the other,” adding, “When we heard it, most of the people just fell to the ground and crawled around in an area piled on top of each other.”
Horrifying details have emerged from inside classrooms showing the chilling chaos endured by students when gunshots rang out this morning.
A mother described the scenes outside the high school as ‘chaos’
Sayerath said his friend was in the classroom next door and witnessed someone being shot, which left him “shocked.” “He saw that someone had been shot. There was blood on him. He was kind of limping. He looked horrified,” he added.
As information comes in about the school shooting, officially the deadliest in Georgia history, students and parents are sharing their shock at the horror that unfolded.
A mother, Erin Clark, shared the text message exchange she had with her son Ethan from the moment she learned there was an active shooter at his school.
She wrote: “There is a school shooting going on right now. I am scared. I am not joking.”
His mother immediately responded and assured him that she was leaving work. In a heartbreaking response, Ethan wrote: “I love you.”
“I love you too, baby. Where are you?” Clark said. Ethan told him he was in class and added, “Someone died.”
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Gray immediately surrendered when confronted by police and “surrendered and got on the ground.”
Grieving students have been arriving in a steady stream outside the school on Thursday to mourn the tragedy.
A makeshift memorial has been created with a wreath and flowers. On Thursday, families and students came to the sombre spot to pay tribute to the lives lost in the tragedy.
President Joe Biden issued a statement condemning gun violence following the tragedy.
He said: ‘What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now become another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.
‘Students across the country are learning to duck and cover instead of reading and writing.
“We can no longer accept this as normal.”
Biden called on Congress to say “enough is enough” and pass new gun safety legislation, describing gun violence as an “epidemic.”
Grieving students have been steadily arriving outside the school on Thursday to mourn the tragedy.
On Thursday, families and students gathered at the somber site to pay their respects to the lives lost in the tragedy.