The teenage boy charged with initiating a shooting incident at a Georgia high school, which resulted in the death of four individuals and injury to nine others, is the son of a man who has now also been arrested on several charges, including second-degree murder. Colin Gray (54), father of accused shooter Colt Gray, now faces accusations including involuntary manslaughter (four counts) and child cruelty (eight counts), in addition to two counts of second-degree murder, according to a social media announcement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
An explanation following the charges asserts that second-degree murder in Georgia is classified as causing the death of another individual while committing child cruelty of the second degree, regardless of intent. Such an offence carries a potential punishment of a prison sentence ranging between 10 to 30 years, whereas premeditated murder and felony murder bear a mandatory life sentence.
Fourteen-year-old Colt Gray, suspected of carrying out the fatal shootings at Apalachee High School, located just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, is facing adult charges for murder. The charges are based on evidence that Gray employed a semi-automatic, assault-style firearm in the attack, which resulted in the death of two students and two faculty members, along with nine others sustaining injuries.
In contrast to allegations that he had planned a school shooting, Gray refuted any such claims during an interview in the previous year, relating to a threatening social media post, as stated in a report by the sheriff. The origin of the said post was ambiguous, due to contrasting evidence, leading to no arrests at the time.
Sheriff Janis Mangum of Jackson County, who had the report under review dating back to May 2023, found no valid reason to issue charges then. Asserting they exhaustively carried out their duty with the information available, she emphatically stated that no error was made in handling the situation.
Additionally, Colin Gray mentioned during an interview with a sheriff’s investigator from a nearby county, in the previous year, that his son Colt Gray had experienced difficulty due to his parents’ separation and that he was often bullied at school. He also described how his son regularly used firearms and went hunting with him, even sharing an image of the young boy with deer’s blood smeared on his cheeks.
Colin Gray indicates that Colt Gray possesses knowledge on the deadly power of weapons and their correct and incorrect usage, as per a transcript acquired from the sheriff’s office. Colt Gray is presently detained at a regional juvenile detention centre, with his initial court hearing planned for Friday morning.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director, Chris Hosey, has revealed that Colt has been arraigned for the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two educators, 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, aged 53.
In addition to these fatalities, there were nine other casualties, consisting of eight students and one teacher from the Winder school, who suffered injuries and were rushed to hospitals. It is anticipated that they all will make it through.
Up until now, the authorities did not provide any reasons or expound on how the perpetrator procured the firearm and smuggled it into a school with approximately 1,900 pupils, situated in an accelerated development zone on the periphery of metropolitan Atlanta. The news was reported by AP.