So far since September 19th of last year, there has been a total of 50 school shootings in the United States. Of that 50, 13 of them were targeted at colleges, and 37 of them were K-12 schools. The incidents left 24 people dead and at least 66 other victims injured, according to CNN’s analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week, and Every-town for Gun Safety.
On September 6th, 2024, a 14-year-old student Colt Gray, and his father Colin Gray are both suspects of the mass shooting at the Georgia high school. The arrest warrant shows that Colin Gray provided his son Colt Gray with the firearm, knowing that Colt was a threat to himself and others.
In July 2022, Colt Gray’s family was evicted by Barrow County Sheriff’s deputies for failing to pay rent. The sheriffs then searched the house and found three firearms, an AR-15, and at least one hunting bow.
In May of 2023, the FBI received many anonymous online threats to commit a school shooting. The online threats consisted of pictures of guns. The Jackson County Sheriff’s office interviewed Colt Gray who was only 13 years old at the time, and his father, Colin Gray, who said there were guns in the house and that they were locked away. Colt denied that he made any of those threats to Jackson County and had no probable cause to arrest Colt or Colin Gray.
In December of 2023, Colt’s father Colin Gray, bought Colt a gun as a holiday present. According to two law enforcement agents, this was the gun used in the mass shooting.
Last month on September 4th, at 9:45 am on a Wednesday, Colt Gray left his classroom to grab his gun. He went back to the same classroom, but it was locked so he went to the room next door and opened fire. The Barrow County Sheriff’s Officer was alerted at 10:20 am, and they arrived a little bit after with only two school resource officers. One of the officers confronted the shooter, who then surrendered immediately, the officer took them into custody.
This shooting left two students and two teachers dead and nine injured. During the questioning, Colt Gray told the investigators “I did it” and then he was booked into the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice. Colt Gray now faces four counts of felony murder.
The father, Colin Gray, was arraigned on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children in connection with this shooting.
According to Judge Currie Mingledorff, Colin Gray will face up to 30 years in prison for each count of second-degree felony Murder. He will be charged 10 years in prison for each count of involuntary manslaughter and another 10 years for each count of cruelty to children.
“This last week has been an incredibly difficult time for all of us. We are still grieving but at the same time, we must try our best to navigate this uncharted journey ahead together,” Dallas LeDuff, the superintendent of Barrow County School System, wrote in a statement.
