Disturbing Details of Georgia School Shooting Suspect's Parents Revealed

Mr Gray these charges stem from Mr Gray knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon the father of accused appalachi high school shooter Colt gray faces charges in connection to the shooting and now new details are coming to light about a warning from Colt's mother I look at what we know about Colt gr's parents and his home life Welcome to Crime fix I'm Anette Levy it's sad that yet again I have to tell you about a teenager being accused of taking a gun into a school a place where kids should feel safe and shooting and killing classmates and School staff Colt gray is a 14-year-old boy who now faces four counts of felony murder the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and its officials say that colt gray took an AR-15 style rifle with him to appalache high school in Winder Georgia last Wednesday September 5th and started shooting police raced to the school for is absolutely one of the worst calls law enforcement can get a school shooting here's Barrow County Sheriff the nine injured uh I am very happy to say will make a full recovery uh and that's a testament to the response that we had in my opinion the response that medical staff happened that responded with in my opinion and we're very happy to say that they will make a full recovery sadly two 14-year-old students Christian Angulo and Mason shemmer horn were killed along with two teachers 53-year-old math teacher Christina iry and 39-year-old assistant football coach Richard Aspen Wall those wounded students though and much of the staff will be forever scarred Colt gray appeared in court the 14-year-old faces as I mentioned those four counts of felony murder and more charges could be coming all right good morning sir are you Mr Colt gray yes sir my name's Curry Mingle or if I'm assigned to preside over this morning's proceedings Mr Gray I do need to inquire as to whether you're able to read and write the English language yes sir and Colt's father 54-year-old Colin Gray faces a number of charges he gave his son the weapon used in the shooting for Christmas according to investigators how old are you Mr Gray 54 and are you able to read and write understand the English English language without any difficulty yes sir uh how far did you go in school uh 11th grade GED you're currently charged with uh two counts of felony murder in the second degree uh you're charged with four counts of felony involuntary manslaughter you're charged with eight counts of felony cruelty to children in the second degree the prosecutor in the case told reporters that this is the second time in the United States and the first time in Georgia that a parent has been charged in connection to a school shooting the first time of course was the crumbly case in Michigan while the shooting at appalachi high school happened nearly a week ago the investigation is still fresh but we're learning some details about what led to the shooting Colt Gray's home life sounded unstable his parents were living apart Gray's mother Marcy gray was convicted of a family violence charge and ordered to have only limited contact with her husband Colin Gray the grays had been evicted from their home and in May of 2023 the FBI Atlanta said it received an anonymous tip about online threats to commit a school shooting the Jackson County Sheriff's Office interviewed Colt gray and his father at the time Colin Gray claimed his son had been bullied I can tell you this I take that very serious and and so does he as a matter of fact like I don't know I I don't know anything about him saying like that and I'm going to be mad as hell if he did and then all the guns will go away and they won't be accessible to him you know we I'm trying to be honestly I'm trying to teach him about firearms and safety and how to do it all and get him interested in the outdoors like on my phone and get him away from those video games exactly right that's the that's the god honest truth and his the picture on my phone is him with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer it was just the greatest day ever so he knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do and how to use them and not use them so it's kind of a it's kind of a little bit of a shock so in whatever y'all are telling him please instilling him that what if this is whatever or wherever this is coming from is no joke no like it's no joke but we wouldn't be here if it was no I know I know and I'm telling you right now we talk about it quite a bit all the school shootings things that happened yeah he are you getting picked on at school he is he's getting picked on at school and is everything okay that's why I keep going up there you know cuz you just never you never really know and I don't want anything to happen to him col gry denied posting things on Discord and the investigation seems to have ended later in 2023 Marcy gray posted a video on Instagram of Colt gray hunting with his father gun in hand the post read proud mama right here all in agreement I'll follow you sir [Music] I see white holy crap look at that brother go ahead and lay your rifle down on it like we have other way Barrel up Barrel up yep see you get mud in the barrel okay it's okay lay that gun down like we had it for the picture Marcy gray told reporters over the weekend the shooting was absolutely horrific meanwhile Marcy Gray's sister Annie Brown Colt's aunt told the Washington Post that Marcy had called the school to warn of a quote extreme emergency 30 minutes before the shooting the post reported that Marcy texted her sister I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school the paper said it had a screenshot of the exchange the message continued I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find a check on on him the post story also claims that a counselor told Marcy gray that her son had discussed a school shooting that morning and Marcy gray was quoted as saying that her son had told her in a text message that he was sorry much remains unclear about what prompted that call and the sheriff's office is referring all calls about this to the DA's office I know because I reached out meanwhile Colt Gray's grandfather spoke to the New York Post over the weekend laying much of the blame on Colt's father Callin gray describing him as screaming and hollering every day he's evil they couldn't they didn't survive in it Colt has to pay for what he did but I'm telling you he was driven no question in my mind he was driven by his father to do what he did that's as plain as I can put it and I know I'm right Annie Brown Colt's aunt also told the Washington Post that her nephew had begged for mental health help for months so many questions remain as the community Grieves the loss of two students and two teachers as they try to find a way forward to heal we cover so many terribly heartbreaking stories here on crime fix and many of them show how sometimes in life you may need a lawyer the appalache high school shooting is a good example of that Morgan and Morgan is a law firm that can help you if you are ever injured in an accident or another type of incident Morgan and Morgan has more than 1,000 lawyers working for the firm who are ready to fight for you and stand up for your rights just recently The Firm has secured and won many multi million doll verdicts and settlements that were much larger than the largest insurance company offer starting a claim is easy and can be done in eight clicks or less using your smartphone so if you need help submitting a claim you can do it today in eight clicks or less log on to forpop.com crifix I want to bring in Christa Ry she's an attorney who represents children against school districts Christa your thoughts on just another tragic shooting this time with Colt Gray being the accused shooter in Georgia you know as the story has developed interet it is such a troubling story and one that we're hearing far too frequently there's actually websites now that track school shootings in our in our country and if you look at the statistics from before covid there was not near as many as there are now they've more than doubled after covid this is an epidemic right now if you go back to 2010 2011 there was LE less than 50 a year now you're having over three and up to 400 school shootings every calendar year there's something seriously wrong and every time I hear about another one I think why haven't we solved this problem yet there were a lot of red flags here um as far as I'm concerned and just the little bit we're we're gleaning from this case and what we know so far uh in 2023 the sheriff's office in Jackson County Georgia went and interviewed Colt Gray's father and Colt and they're like saying that there was a threat on Discord discussion about a school shooting Colt denied it but then um the father is saying his son was bullied and that he had been up to the school and talked with the school about this in the past then this investigation is closed out nothing happens but then the law enforcement officials are saying gbi says Colt gray despite this whole incident goes out and buys his son a gun that to me is just beyond the pale yeah it reminds us of the crumblies too right the the case in Michigan and and it is beyond the pale so you've got someone who has is having issues at school by the way Middle School is awful for all children they go through a lot this is when most of the Bing happens it's about power struggles that our kids are having they're going through you know puberty they are you know trying to gain independence from their families and find out who they are and you you see a lot of incidences of bullying and how schools react to it you know plays a pivotal role but with the parents do in response to it is also critical and it it seems like that this family had you know a lot of experiences with hunting and and you know it was a way that family bonded look I'm from Texas my family you know Hunters you know I know how to make venison a bunch of different ways but you don't go over the extreme when you've got a child that has mental issues you treat those mental issues and when you have a child that is having you know a crisis don't buy him an a style rifle and you know this is where you know I I get a little frustrated when I'm hearing you know a lot of people saying how Colin Gray was arrested for what his son did no Colin Gray is arrested for what Colin Gray did that led to his son doing the school shooting there is a a direct and approximate relationship between the what he knew about his son's mental illness and the purchase of that weapon and then the school's shooting last week Christa the prosecutor had indicated that there would be more charges filed in this case uh possibly against like col gry and Colton gray so what are you seeing unfold in this case from what we know now there will be a grand jury that's um going to meet and that has been convened to look at this case so right now both the father and the son have only been charged in relationship to the the individuals that died and there were several other individuals that were injured and that are still recovering from their injuries and they are waiting to see what happens with those individuals and how serious ious their injuries are and if any of them are life-threatening if any of them are life-threatening and other people die as a result of those injuries then there might be more charges for second degree murder and manslaughter if not it will just be attempted murder um and you know you know negligent um you know homicide attempted homicide with respect to the father so I think that that's why the forecast of there's going to be more charges has to do with those other victims that there has been no charging um documents with respect to those so what I suspect is that a grand jury will be impanel and you know as they Gathering evidence are be presenting to that grand jury they're probably going to find out a lot more information about what the what the school knew what the parents knew what the mom knew I suspect that the mom is going to be under scrutiny for reasons we just talked about she obviously knew that there was something wrong with her her child um there is um you know a lot of evidence that I've read about the mother that is very disturbing as well um in terms of you know some charges that had to do with some violence in the home that she was um charged with and at that time of her arrest there was fentanyl in her car so I I think that this I think that that not to excuse what Colt gry did but there was a lot that contributed to it and the home environment was certainly one of those things and so I suspect that the da is going to be looking into that as well and presenting evidence to the grand jury with respect to both mom and dad and what they knew or what they should have known with respect to their son and let's turn to Mom now um Marcy gray um she was not living with Colt at the time that this happened but there's been some reporting over the weekend in particular from The Washington Post in which they interviewed uh Marcy Gray's sister and she said that her sister called at the school probably 40 minutes or so a half hour before this happened and there was a 10-minute phone call on the phone log and it she said that there uh was an extreme emergency she warned the guidance counselor that she needed to go um and find her son that there was an emergency and she also um said that her son had texted her that he was sorry so Mom tried to warn the school we don't know what the extreme emergency was if there was more detail given to about that um but Mom did try to warn the school what do you make of that that tells me that the mom had some knowledge that her child had some mental health issues that maybe he spoke to his mother about his desires to inflict harm on others um that were maybe harming him and that I'm sorry text was probably as a result of a conversation that she had with her son and where he informed her of what his fonia's desires were with respect to how he was going to respond to how others were treating him uh it would have done her a lot more good to intervene to talk to her you know I think that they're aranged I'll call them I don't know if they're they're still married or not but talk to Colin the father and say you know this is what he told me what can we do you know I'm making a lot of assumptions here but you don't just say you know I you know when your son texts you I'm sorry you don't immediately lead to there's going to be a major emergency I've got to get to my son immediately you know when my children we kind of talked about this earlier you know say I'm sorry I you know react my reaction was what did you do wrong might fail a test or you know skip school even on the worst scenarios you don't as a parent go immediately to others might be in danger so I think that the mother knew something or suspected something whether or not that leads to criminal culpability I think that's yet to be seen it certainly is uh yet to be seen and Marcy gray told reporters over the weekend uh she said this is totally horrific um as any human being with any ounce of compassion or empathy would would say um a counselor apparently according to the Washington Post reporting and this is all being relayed by the aunt by Marcy Gray's sister a counselor told Marcy gray apparently that morning that her son had been talking about a school shooting um there's also some reporting in this story that the school had been in contact with the family about his mental Health possible homicidal and suicidal thoughts so it just in the week before the shooting so I I just don't understand why this child wasn't or why he was even in school if he's having these thoughts you would think that these thoughts would be addressed with a mental health Prof professional immediately um instead of having him sit in a classroom and continue to go to school Absol absolutely in um in California it be an involuntary hold uh 5150 holds we call them and then that would turn into an extended period of time of hospitalization and intense therapy you know this this is what this is the right reaction to something like that you know and then you know with respect to the school being on notice here as well I keep going back to that but the school was aware of things that were going on because these were you know according to the aunt at least they were being relayed to the school and before the morning of the shoy the school stands in the place of a parent in in loc in Loca parentis the Latin expression and when you send your child to school they don't need probable cause to search your backpacks they don't need probable cause to search your locker or your persons they stand in the place of your parent they can open that up anytime they want you know so what did the why why wasn't the school taking steps um you know I think that a lot of times now we look at you know protect the social emotional learning of children and we should be doing that but you should also be making sure that you're protecting the other students from potential harm when a child is having homicidal fantasies or suicidal fantasies making sure that you're talking to the parents and saying right now we're going to suspend him maybe for a couple weeks you get him some mental health treatment and then let us know how he's doing and he'll be welcomed back into our school and I I think that everybody has failed here it it seems like a lot of failures and and we are still you know needing to confirm a lot of this reporting um but I just want to be clear about what what I just said I want to clarify the reporting here it said that um the the sister I guess the aunt of Marcy gray told a relative the teen was having homicidal and suicidal thoughts but the school had been in touch with the family about his mental health in the week before the shooting so there's a lot that we still don't know um and a lot that I think we will learn that will reveal major failures in this case Christ Ry thank you so much for your time we appreciate it thank you so much for having me and that's it for this episode of crime fix I'm Anette Levy thanks so much for being with me I'll see you back here next time