Father of 14-year-old boy accused of committing crime deadly mass shooting from Apalachee High School in Georgia, pleaded not guilty Thursday to the charges against him.
Colin Gray was not present in court, but his lawyers told the judge during a brief hearing that their client was pleading not guilty and had waived formal arraignment. It is common in Georgia for defendants to plead and waive indictment.
Gray and his son, Colt Gray, were both charged in the September 4 shooting that killed two students and two teachers and injured others. Colt Gray is charged as an adult and has been charged with 55 counts, including murder and 25 counts of aggravated high school assault. His father was charged with 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of manslaughter. Both also face multiple counts of child cruelty.
Colt Gray pleaded not guilty last month and also waived his indictment.
Colt Gray is being held at a juvenile detention center in Gainesville, while Colin Gray, 54, is being held in the Barrow County Jail. Neither asked to be released on bail.
The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight other students were injured, including seven hit by bullets.
Colin Gray is the first known adult to be charged in a Georgia school shooting. His indictment is the latest example of prosecutors holding parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings. Michigan Parents Jennifer and James Crumbleythe first to be convicted in a mass school shooting in the United States, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to secure a firearm at home and acting with indifference when faced with signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health before killing four students in 2021.
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
Investigators said Colt Gray was carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle on a school bus, with the barrel protruding from his schoolbag, wrapped in poster board. They say the boy carefully planned the shooting at a 1,900-student high school northeast of Atlanta, drawing diagrams and listing potential body counts in a notebook. He left his second period class and came out of the bathroom with the gun before shooting people in a classroom and in the hallways.
Last month, authorities revealed details from the alleged shooter’s notebooks which included detailed plans of the attack as well as violent drawings. Witnesses said Colin Gray knew of his son’s mental health issues but bought him a laser sight, tactical vest and ammunition in the months before the shooting.
Investigators also said the suspected shooter erected a “shrine” to school shooters in his bedroom and hung a photo of the Parkland shooter, who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 Their testimony revealed that his father knew. his obsession with school shooters and that the teen had even discussed the Parkland shooting with his grandmother about a week before the shooting.
