WINDER, Ga. — The father of the suspected Apalachee High School shooter was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, the most serious charges ever filed against a parent of an alleged school shooter.
Colin Gray, 54, was arrested less than 36 hours after his 14-year-old son allegedly shot and killed two teachers and two students at his Winder, Ga., school. The victims have been identified as Richard Aspinwall, 39; Christina Irimie, 53; Christian Angulo, 14; and Mason Schermerhorn, 14. Nine others were also injured during the attack and are expected to recover.
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During a news conference Thursday evening, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said Gray “knowingly allowed [his son] to possess the weapon” used in the shooting and that the charges against him are “directly connected to the actions of his son.” In addition to two counts of second-degree murder, Gray has also been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children. His son has been charged with four felony counts of murder and will be tried as an adult.
Father Gifted Gun Used in Attack Despite Recent Investigation Into School Shooting Threats
Gray told investigators earlier this week that he purchased the gun used in the killings — an AR-15-style weapon — as a Christmas present for his son in Dec. 2023, CNN reports. Just seven months prior, Gray and his son were interviewed by local law enforcement after the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips that the teen allegedly made threats on the messaging app Discord about shooting up a middle school.
During the May 2023 interview, Colin Gray told officers he had two hunting rifles in the house but that his son “does not have unfettered access to them” and that they were both “locked away.” He also reportedly called the investigation “b******t” and a “terrorist threat.”
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Gray also told investigators that his son was “going through a lot” and that it was “very difficult for him to go to school and not get picked on.”
“I urged Colin to keep his firearms locked away, and advised him to keep [his son] out of school until this matter could be resolved,” investigator Daniel Miller Jr. wrote in a detailed investigation report.
The teen told investigators he had previously deleted a Discord account but denied that he would make such a threat, “even in a joking manner,” according to the report. Investigators said they could not substantiate the Discord threat and therefore had no probable cause for an arrest.
According to the report, the Discord threats came from a user profile that spelled the name of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter in Russian, Fox News reports.
Apalachee School Shooter’s Family Says There Were Warning Signs
Several family members are speaking out, indicating there were warning signs leading up to the shooting. Before the announcement of Colin Gray’s arrest, the teen’s maternal grandfather, Charles Polhamus, said he wanted the teen’s father to be charged as well.
“If he didn’t have a damn gun, he wouldn’t have gone and killed anybody,” he said. “His dad beat up on him, I mean, I’m not talking about physical, but screaming and hollering, and he did the same thing to my daughter.”
The teen’s aunt, Annie Brown, also told the New York Post that her nephew had been “begging” the adults around him for mental health support in recent months.
RELATED: Early Warning Signs of Potential School Gun Violence
Lauren Vickers, a former neighbor and landlord, told the Washington Post that police and child services visited the Gray household on a regular basis. She said there were “problems immediately” when the Grays and their three children moved into the neighborhood in 2022.
“There were nights where the mom would lock him and his sister out the house. And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like ‘Mom! mom! mom!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating,” she said. “No clean clothes, I’m not exaggerating. It was constant abuse. It’s very, very sad.”
The accused shooter’s mother, 43-year-old Marcee Gray, has a lengthy criminal record that includes domestic violence, drug possession, property damage, and driving under the influence charges. Vickers said the mother battled drug and alcohol addictions.
Apalachee School Shooting Case Reminiscent of Oxford School Shooting Case
The charges come almost exactly five months after the mother and father of the Oxford High School shooter were convicted of involuntary manslaughter, a less severe crime than second-degree murder.
Jennifer and James Crumbley were both found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter, making them the first parents in the U.S. to be held responsible for their child carrying out a mass school shooting. Both were sentenced to 10 to 15 years on April 9. Judge Cheryl Matthews said each action or inaction created a ripple effect and that she believes the sentences are “in the best interests of justice and are reasonable and proportionate.”
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Prosecutors say 45-year-old Jennifer Crumbley was “grossly negligent” in giving a gun to her then-15-year-old son and that she had a duty under state law to prevent him from harming others. Prosecutors maintained throughout James Crumbley’s trial that he should have reasonably foreseen that his son was troubled and may resort to violence. Prosecutors said Crumbley purchased the gun used in the shooting for his son during a time when he was struggling emotionally after his best friend moved away.
Killed in the shooting were 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Justin Shilling.
Oxford Prosecutor Pushes for Safe Gun Storage
Karen McDonald, the attorney who prosecuted the Oxford school shooter and his parents, spoke to the Washington Post about similarities between the two cases, urging parents to do more to keep firearms out of the hands of their children.
“The set of facts seems so similar and it’s so incredibly difficult to see it repeated,” she said. “My sincerest hope was that there would never be a need to charge parents in another school shooting. Securing a firearm takes less than 10 seconds. It would have been so easy to save the lives of four people.”
RELATED: 43% of U.S. Households Store Loaded Guns
Just 21 states and D.C. have passed statutes that impose criminal penalties on people who store guns where children can access them, according to the Giffords Law Center. The organization estimates that 4.6 million minors in the United States live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm.
A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also estimates that 43% of U.S. households store their guns loaded. About 50% of those households also do not store their firearms in locked containers.
