WINDER, Ga. — The mother of a 14-year-old accused of fatally shooting two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School on Sept. 4 said she alerted a school counselor the morning of the shooting that there was an “extreme emergency” involving her son.
The suspected shooter’s aunt, Annie Brown, told the Washington Post that her sister, Marcee Gray, texted her saying she urged the counselor to “immediately” find her son to check on him. Brown provided screenshots of the texts to The Post and a call log from the family’s shared phone plan shows a 10-minute call from the mother’s phone to the school starting at 9:50 a.m. Thirty minutes later, witnesses said the teen opened fire.
Killed in the attack were 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall, 53-year-old Christina Irimie, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14.
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When asked by The Post what prompted her to call to warn the school, Gray did not elaborate but said she shared that information with law enforcement. Charles Polhamus, the suspect’s maternal grandfather, told the New York Post that Gray rushed to Winder after receiving a text message from her son that said, “I’m sorry, mom.” About halfway into the three-hour drive, Gray heard that two students and two teachers were killed, according to Polhamus.
Witness: Similarly-Named Apalachee Students Created Confusion Among Administrators
Brown told The Post that the counselor told Gray during the call that her son had been talking about a school shooting that morning. Around the same time, a school administrator went to the boy’s math class. Classmate Lyela Sayarath said there seemed to be confusion because another student in the class had a name similar to Gray’s son, and the administrator was looking for that student. That student had gone to the bathroom, the teacher said, and the administrator left with his backpack.
Shortly after, Sayarath said the student with a similar name returned with his backpack and told her that an adult in the hallway asked him about a first-period teacher he didn’t have. He told the adult that he thought they might be looking for the other similarly named student. Sayarath said a voice then came over the intercom asking the teacher to check her email. Moments later, the suspect approached the classroom and the teacher said back to the person on the intercom, “Oh, he’s here.”
Sayarath previously told CNN that the suspected shooter left the classroom at the beginning of their math class around 9:45 a.m. He then reportedly returned near the end of class and knocked to get back in after the doors locked automatically. Another student went to let the teen in but noticed he had a gun and backed away. Seconds later, gunfire erupted in a nearby classroom.
Sayarath told The Post she was angry that school officials did not take more aggressive action.
“You were looking for the kid … and you didn’t lock up the school when you found out he wasn’t in the class?” she said. “If they had locked the school down, a lot of people might still freaking be here.”
Family Tried to Get Apalachee School Shooting Suspect Help
The texts provided by Brown to the Washington Post also show the school and family were in contact about the teen’s mental health a week before the shooting. The teen’s grandmother, Deborah Polhamus, had met with a school counselor to request help for him. After the meeting, Polhamus wrote in a text message to Brown that he “starts with the therapist tomorrow.”
Brown told the New York Post that her nephew had been “begging” the adults around him for mental health support in recent months. In an Aug. 29 text message, Brown said she was hopeful about the plans to get her nephew into therapy but that she was concerned about his access to guns in the home.
“He has been having homicidal and suicidal thoughts, he shouldn’t have a gun, and he should’ve been in THERAPY months ago,” she wrote.
The suspect’s father, Colin Gray, told investigators he purchased the gun used in the killings — an AR-15-style weapon — as a Christmas present for his son in Dec. 2023. Gray was arrested on Thursday and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children.
In May 2023, Gray and his son were interviewed by deputies from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office 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. Law enforcement officials subequently alerted schools in the area about “monitoring” the teen but said there was no probable cause for arrest.
Suspect Was Bullied, Father Says
During the interview, Gray told investigators his son was “getting picked on at school” and that he was called “gay” by classmates. Other students were “pinching him and touching him… just ridiculed him day after day after day.”
“I don’t want him to fight anybody, but they just keep like pinching him and touching him,” Gray said. “Words are one thing, but you start touching him and that’s a whole different deal. And it’s just escalated to the point where like his finals were last week and that was the last thing on his mind.”
Gray also said he had hunting rifles in the house and that “[his son] is allowed to use them when supervised but does not have unfettered access to them” and that he’s “trying to teach him about firearms and safety and how to do it all and get him… interested in the outdoors,” in part to get him away from video games, according to CNN.
“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do and how to use them and not use them,” he said.
Home Life of the Apalachee School Shooting Suspect
Differing stories from various family members paint a picture of a tumultuous home life for the suspected shooter. Colin Gray told investigators that the family was evicted from their shared home and that he later separated from the boy’s mother. A bitter custody battle reportedly ensued and the two younger siblings went to live with their mother while the suspect stayed with his father.
Marcee Gray has a lengthy criminal record dating back nearly two decades, including domestic violence, drug possession, property damage, and driving under the influence charges. One former neighbor and landlord claims police and child services visited the Gray household on a regular basis.
“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.”
Marcee’s father denies allegations that she abused her children, calling Colin Gray “evil” and a “narcissist.” In a Dec. 2022 LinkedIn comment, Marcee wrote that she had “finally separated from my abusive husband of almost 14 years.”
“I understand that [my grandson] chose to do what he did, and I understand he has to pay for it,” said Polhamus. “But I’m telling you, the environment that he lived in, you put somebody in a situation like that for 10 or 11 years, guess what’s gonna happen? Nothing good.”
