Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with murder over the killing of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday.
His father, Colin Gray, is accused of second-degree murder for providing his son with a semiautomatic AR 15-style rifle.
“I don’t know anything about him saying (expletive) like that,” Gray told Jackson County sheriff’s investigator Daniel Miller, according to a transcript of their interview obtained by the AP.
He doesn’t really think straight,” Colin Gray told the investigator on May 21, 2023, recalling a discussion he’d had with the boy’s principal.
Middle school had also been rough for Colt Gray.
Colin Gray said the boy had just a few friends and frequently got picked on.
Colin Gray told the investigator in 2023 that he had paid his rent.
Colt Gray “struggled at first with the separation and all,” said the father, who worked a construction job.
Two days later, there was a follow-up interview with Colin Gray while he was at work.
A year before they would both end up charged in the high school shooting, Colin Gray insisted to the sheriff’s investigator that his son wasn’t the type to threaten violence.
According to a relative, the 14-year-old’s mother called the school ahead of the killings to alert staff to a “extreme emergency” involving her son. The 14-year-old is charged with murder in connection with the shooting deaths of four people at his Georgia high school.
Colt Gray’s mother texted Annie Brown, who then told the Washington Post that she had spoken with a school counselor and asked them to “immediately” locate her son to see how he was doing.
The newspaper published screen grabs of the text exchange that Brown gave them, along with information about a call log from the family’s shared phone plan that indicated a call was placed to the school approximately half an hour before the suspected gunfire broke out.
Brown declined to comment further on Saturday, but he did confirm the reporting via text messages to The Associated Press.
At Apalachee High School in Barrow County, outside of Atlanta, on Wednesday, two students and two teachers were killed. Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with murder in connection with this incident. Colin Gray, the father of the accused, is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly giving his son a semiautomatic AR-15-style rifle.
At their initial Friday court appearance, their attorneys declined to request bail right away.
The suspects were previously questioned by investigators.
When asked if his son had made any threats online, the Georgia teen’s father told a sheriff’s investigator last year that the adolescent had suffered with his parents’ divorce and bullying from classmates.
According to an AP-obtained transcript of their interview, Gray said to Jackson County sheriff’s investigator Daniel Miller, “I don’t know anything about him saying (expletive) like that.”. If he did, I would be furious beyond belief, and all the guns would disappear. “.
Colt Gray’s case was closed by Jackson County authorities a year ago after they determined that there was insufficient evidence connecting him to a threat made on the popular video gaming social media platform Discord. The documents resulting from that inquiry offer a limited perspective of a young man who battled the separation of his parents and experienced bullying at his middle school, where his father claimed he was regularly picked on.
According to the father, his son experienced bullying at school.
He becomes agitated and feels pressed for time. On May 21, 2023, Colin Gray informed the investigator that the boy “doesn’t really think straight,” citing a conversation he’d had with the boy’s principal.
For Colt Gray, middle school had been difficult as well. When Miller spoke with the father and son, the boy had just completed his seventh year of school. According to Colin Gray, the boy was bullied a lot and didn’t have many friends. A few pupils “just made fun of him every single day.”. “.
Gray stated, “I don’t want him to fight anybody, but they just keep touching and pinching him.”. “Telling him something is one thing, but actually touching him is quite another.”. The situation has gotten so bad that he was completely consumed by it, even though his finals were last week. “.
He claimed that the two fathers’ favorite activities were shooting guns and hunting. The boy is supposed to spend less time playing video games on his Xbox and more time being active outside, according to Gray. His father grew incredibly proud when Colt Gray shot a deer a few months prior. Declaring, “You see him with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer,” he showed the investigator a picture from his cellphone. “.
Colin Gray exclaimed, “It was the best day ever.”.
Neither Gray’s assault-style rifle ownership is mentioned in the transcript of the interview or the investigator’s report. The father answered “yes” when asked if his son had access to guns. However, he claimed that the guns weren’t kept loaded and that when he was teaching the boy to shoot, he had placed a priority on safety.
Gray stated that “he understands the gravity of weapons, their potential, and appropriate and inappropriate uses.”. “.
2022: Family was evicted.
The summer of 2022 upended the Grays’ family with an eviction. That July 25th, a sheriff’s deputy was sent to the suburban cul-de-sac rental house occupied by Colin Gray, his wife, Colt, and the two younger siblings of the boy. In the yard, a moving crew was stacking their possessions.
In a report, the Jackson County deputy stated that the movers discovered hunting bows and firearms in a closet located in the master bedroom. Rather than leaving the weapons and ammunition outside with the family’s other belongings, they gave them to the deputy to keep safe.
The deputy noted that in order for Gray to retrieve the firearms from the sheriff’s office later, he had placed copies of the receipt forms for the weapons on the front door. The report makes no mention of the cause of the eviction. The investigator was informed by Colin Gray in 2023 that he had made his rent payment.
His wife left him and took their two younger siblings with her after the eviction, he claimed. Colt Gray “struggled at first with the separation and all,” according to his father, a construction worker.
He informed the investigator, “I’m the only provider; I work on high rises downtown.”. Colin Gray underwent a follow-up interview while he was at work two days later. “I am suspended from the top of a building,” he stated over the phone. dot. It’s quite noisy up here because I have a large crane lift operating. “.
boy characterized as reserved.
In a report, the 13-year-old boy was described as quiet, composed, and reserved. The investigator also spoke with him.
He denied ever threatening anyone and claimed to have stopped using the Discord app, where the school threat was posted, months prior. Afterwards, he informed his father that someone had hacked into his account.
The teenager claimed, “TikTok is all I have, but all I do is go on there and watch videos.”.
Colin Gray told the sheriff’s investigator his son wasn’t the kind to threaten violence a year before they would both be charged in the high school shooting.
“Officer Miller, he’s not a recluse. Don’t understand that,” the father continued, noting that his only goals are to attend school, pursue his own interests, and stay out of trouble.
. “.
