Georgia school shooting suspect and father make first court appearance

ATLANTA (CN) — The 14-year-old accused of fatally shooting four people at a Georgia high school and his father made their first appearances in court Friday.

Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray, 54, will both remain in custody after their lawyers declined to seek bail.

With shackles at the waist and wrist, Colt Gray was escorted in and out of a Barrow County courtroom full of about 50 onlookers that included some family members of the victims seated in the front row.

During the hearing, Chief Judge Currie Mingledorff informed him of his charges and the penalties he faces. The teen is being tried as an adult and faces four counts of felony murder, facing a maximum penalty of life without parole.

Mingledorff initially had mentioned the death penalty as a possible punishment, but brought the teen back out moments later to correct the record. Although Colt Gray is being tried as an adult, the judge said he is not eligible for the death penalty because he’s a juvenile.

Colin Gray appeared before the judge shortly after his son. He was arrested Thursday on charges including four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, officials said.

He faces a maximum punishment of up to 180 years in prison, Mingledorff said during the hearing.

Georgia Bureau of Investigations Director Chris Hosey said the father’s charges are “directly connected with the actions of his son,” who is also accused of injuring nine others when authorities said he opened fire at Apalachee High School on Wednesday morning.

Under Georgia law, parents or caretakers can be charged with second-degree cruelty to children if investigators can prove criminal negligence — whether an adult was aware or should have been aware of a gun being left accessible and did nothing to keep it out of the reach of children. Second-degree murder is added on if the negligence results in a death.

According to arrest warrants, Colt Gray is accused of using a “black semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle” to kill two students and two teachers at the school. Authorities have yet to offer any motive or explain how he obtained the gun or got it into the school.

Those killed were students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, assistant football coach Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and math teacher Christina Irimie, 53.

Eight students and one teacher were injured, but expected to make full recoveries, according to the GBI.

The judge also set a preliminary hearing for Dec. 4.

“We should not be charging 14-year-olds as adults in my view ever. That’s a failure of the criminal justice system,” Georgia State University Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis said on X.

“But here the charges are a mismatch against the underlying theories of liability that (perhaps reasonably) support charging the father,” Kreis added in his post.

A group of advocates including Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, as well as Barrow County community members and students rallied in front of the state capitol Friday to urge lawmakers to enact stricter gun laws.

“Georgia has some of the weakest gun laws in the country,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, senior director of research at Everytown For Gun Safety.

The state has no laws mandating secure storage devices, no minimum age requirement to possess rifles and shotguns, and allows permitless carry.

“There are good studies about secure storage laws. They work and are incredibly effective,” Burd-Sharps added.

She said that secure storage laws help prevent adolescents from obtaining guns from members of their household and thus prevent school shootings, young people from unintentionally shooting themselves, and reduce risk of suicide.

Democrats in the state have tried to propose restrictive legislation, but resistance from Republicans has prevented bolder proposals from gaining traction.

According to research by Everytown, there have been six other incidents this year involving firearms on Georgia campuses, making Apalachee the seventh.

Its the 23rd time this year in the country that a school shooting has resulted in injuries or deaths, according to data compiled by Education Week, a news organization that covers K-12 education.

On Wednesday, the FBI said they had previously investigated Colt Gray in May 2023, after the agency received several anonymous tips about threats to commit a school shooting that had been posted online. The threats did not specify which school or when it would happen, but included photos of guns.

The agency said that the father had hunting guns in the house but said his son did not have unsupervised access to them. Colt Gray, who was 13 at the time, denied being the one behind the threatening posts.

Investigators did not have enough evidence or legal basis to pursue any charges at the time. They said that the Jackson Sheriff’s Office alerted local schools and Colt Gray was to be monitored, however the teen and his father later moved to a different county.

According to police and court records, Colt Gray lived with his father, while his two younger siblings resided with their mother, Marcee Gray, who was arrested last year for scratching her husband’s truck and possession of methamphetamines and fentanyl.

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