The father of the 14-year-old student accused of killing four people at a Georgia high school has been apprehended, police announced Thursday.
Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to a social media post by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Colin’s son, Colt Gray, has been charged as an adult with murder in connection with the shootings that occurred on Wednesday at Apalachee High School, just outside of Atlanta. According to arrest warrants the AP was able to acquire, he is accused of carrying out the attack—which left two students and two instructors dead and nine others injured—with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle. According to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, it was Gray’s first full day at the school.
At a press conference on Thursday evening, Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, stated that the father “knowingly allowed him to possess the weapon. His charges are directly connected to the actions of his son.” According to two law enforcement officials, Colin Gray had given his son an AR-15-style firearm as a gift.
Local police had questioned Gray and his son a year ago over the teen’s purported internet threats to shoot up a school; Colt Gray refuted the claims at the time. Although the exact time of the gift’s giving is unknown, it was following an interview that the father and son had with the authorities last year over the above mentioned threats.
Allegations against Colin Gray come only months after a mother and father in Michigan became the first parents of a school shooter to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, a lesser offense than second-degree murder. Investigators discovered that, prior to their 15-year-old son opening fire at Oxford High in Michigan in November 2021, James and Jennifer Crumbley had given their son a gun, neglected to lock it away, and disregarded obvious warning indicators. Four students were killed in the incident. Each of the parents received the maximum term of 10 to 15 years in jail after being found guilty in separate trials.
In 2015, the father of a 15-year-old gunman in Washington state was also found guilty of unlawfully acquiring the gun that his son used to kill four people and injure five others.
