Murder charges have been filed against the father of a 14-year-old boy accused in a Georgia school shooting, following the successful prosecution of two parents in Michigan who were held responsible for a similar tragedy at a school north of Detroit.
Is this a sign of a crackdown on parents accused of serious child and gun neglect? Could public outrage lead to more prosecutions or law changes in other states as well?
“It’s about looking at the relationship between what the child says and does and what the parent knows about what the child says and does,” said David Shapiro, a former prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and murder in the deaths of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, near Atlanta. Nine other people were injured.
Gray’s son, Colt Gray, is charged with murder. Investigators say he used an “AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle” in the attack.
The charges against Colin Gray “are directly related to his son’s actions and allowing him to possess a weapon,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Milestone in Michigan
James and Jennifer Crumbley were convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year in the 2021 deaths of four Oxford High School students, the first time parents have been held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting in the United States. They are serving 10-year prison sentences while their appeals are heard.
The Crumbleys didn’t know what their son Ethan Crumbley had planned. But prosecutor Karen McDonald said their son’s actions were predictable. They were summoned to discuss the 15-year-old’s gruesome drawings of a gun and blood on a math homework assignment and a message: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. My life is worthless.”
The Crumbleys refused to take him home, but said they would see a therapist. That same day, Ethan Crumbley pulled a gun out of his backpack and started shooting, using a gun that James Crumbley had bought as a gift a few days earlier. No one, not parents or school staff, had checked the backpack.
“The parents’ actions and inactions were inexorably linked” to what their son ultimately did at Oxford, the Michigan Court of Appeals said in 2023, when the groundbreaking case was allowed to move forward.
The case of Georgia
Prosecutor Brad Smith has declined to publicly reveal the details that led him to charge Colin Gray in the Apalachee shooting. But in arrest warrants, authorities said he provided his son with a gun “knowing he posed a threat to himself and others.”
Smith acknowledged the Michigan case at a news conference Friday and said its case was a first for Georgia.
“I’m not trying to make a point,” he said. “I’m just trying to use the tools at my disposal to prosecute people for the crimes they commit.”
Colin Gray was questioned last year as authorities investigated his son over a threatening social media post. The father said the teen “knows the seriousness of guns and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” according to a transcript. Nothing further was asked.
McDonald, the Michigan prosecutor, said the Georgia shooting and the father’s arrest were a “real punch in the gut.”
“I can’t believe that the facts that were found to be so egregious in our case seem to be so similar,” she told The Associated Press.
Increased surveillance for parents?
McDonald said states have laws that provide consequences for gross negligence in a variety of situations. She said it was encouraging that Georgia police immediately investigated how the gun was obtained.
“I never thought this would be a moment that would open the door to accusations against parents or send a message to people,” McDonald said of the Crumbley case. “Most people don’t need that message. It’s heartbreaking to see this unfold.”
She said it only took a few seconds to lock a gun, which she demonstrated to a jury.
Shapiro, the former New Jersey prosecutor, said every state likely has laws that can be used to hold parents accountable, although much depends on the facts and the prosecutor’s opinion.
“You don’t want to allow parents to overlook these kinds of signs that there’s something really serious or a serious risk,” he said.
This year, Michigan passed a new law requiring adults to keep their guns locked up when minors are around. In Newaygo County, a grandfather pleaded not guilty in August in the death of his 5-year-old grandson. Another boy had picked up a loaded shotgun and fired.
“If people locked up their guns, we wouldn’t be sending their parents to jail for it,” said Kris Brown, president of Brady, a gun violence prevention group. “And we wouldn’t be digging so many graves.”
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AP reporters Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.
