OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:18 PM – Thursday, November 21, 2024
Colin Gray, the father of the accused Georgia school shooter, Colt Gray, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a slew of charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.
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The charges implicate Gray in the September mass shooting carried out by his son at Apalachee High School, which resulted in the deaths of four people.
Although Gray did not appear in court, Gray’s representative, Jimmy Berry, pleaded not guilty on Gray’s behalf.
Colin Gray was indicted by a Barrow County grand jury on 29 counts, including second-degree murder, second-degree cruelty to children, involuntary manslaughter, and reckless conduct, according to court records.
Colin’s charges mark the first instance in Georgia history where a parent of a school shooting suspect has been charged.
He reportedly gifted his son a firearm after law enforcement officials had already informed him that his son was posting threats online. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office interviewed the Gray family after the FBI received a tip in May 2023 from a user in a chat forum. Officers revealed to Colin that his son was threatening a possible mass shooting at a middle school.
During the interview, Colt reportedly “expressed concern that someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” court documents reveal.
Additionally, prosecutors argue that Colin Gray did not take proper action to prevent the mass shooting, despite being aware of his son’s obsession with school shooters, which reportedly included a shrine of Nikolas Cruz, the 2018 Parkland school shooter.
After being arrested, 14-year-old Colt was later charged as an adult and he now faces 55 counts, including four counts of felony murder and four counts of malice murder.
The September 4th shooting resulted in the death of two students and two teachers, while nine others were also badly injured in the violent attack. The victims were identified as 14-year-old Christian Angulo, 14-year-old Mason Schermerhorn, 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall, and 53-year-old Cristina Irimie.
“It’s even harder just to think of, to accept, that somebody that could have done this when the FBI knew who he was, that he was capable of this. I lost my coach and classmates and friends who were hurt right across from the room I was in,’ stated 15-year-old student Isaiah Hooks. “I just feel like that person shouldn’t have been able to even be around a school. His threat should have been included in his transcript or something. This should have been prevented since they knew he could do something like this.”
Colt also pleaded not guilty in October and waived his formal arraignment, with both of the Grays due back in court on the 4th of December.
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