According to a new report by CNN the father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting that left four people dead, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Colin Gray, 54, is facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said Thursday.
His son, Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student, is accused of killing two students and two teachers with an AR-style rifle in the Wednesday shooting. Nine more people were hospitalized.
CNN is working to determine whether Colin Gray has legal representation.
When reached by phone on Thursday, the Barrow County Public Defender’s Office could not confirm if they were representing him and had no comment.
Gray told investigators this week he had purchased the gun used in the killings as a holiday present for his son in December 2023, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.
One source told CNN the AR-15-style rifle was purchased at a local gun store as a Christmas present.
The timeline the teen’s father provided to authorities would put the gun purchase months after authorities first contacted Gray and his family to investigate school shooting threats made online.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia closed that investigation because the tip about the threat could not be substantiated.
The teen suspect left his Algebra 1 class around 9:45 a.m., his classmate Lyela Sayarath told CNN.
The classroom doors lock automatically, and near the end of class, the suspect knocked on the door to try to come back in, Lyela said.
Another student went to open the door but apparently saw the gun and refused to let him in, Lyela said.
That diversion may have saved her life.
“I think he wanted to come to us first,” Lyela said.
Instead, the shooter turned to a nearby classroom and opened fire, “and you hear about 10 to 15 rounds back-to-back,” Lyela said.
The first report of an active shooter came in around 10:20 a.m. Two school resource officers and other law enforcement quickly arrived, Georgia Bureau of Investigations Director Chris Hosey said.
“I heard gunshots outside my classroom and people screaming, people begging not to get shot,” said 14-year-old student Macey Right.
“And then people sitting beside me (were) just shaking and crying.”
One of the school resource officers confronted the shooter, who surrendered and was taken into custody, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.
The suspect, Colt Gray, is being held Thursday at Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Centers, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice told CNN.
He will make his first court appearance Friday, department spokesperson Glenn Allen said.
Gray is continuing to cooperate with investigators, Smith told CNN on Thursday.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp called the mass shooting “everybody’s worst nightmare” – but it’s a nightmare shared by many Americans across the country.
So far this year, the United States has suffered at least 385 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as those in which four or more victims are shot. That’s an average of more than 1.5 mass shootings every day.
