12 Disturbing Details of Georgia School Shooting and Suspect Colt Gray

his charges are directly connected with uh the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon atina and his father are both Behind Bars after the country's latest school shooting left two students and two teachers dead it happened about an hour outside of Atlanta in Winder Georgia the 14-year-old alleged shooter made his first appearance in court accused of using an assault rifle to Target his classmates and teachers we have the latest information from police reports court records and Witnesses welcome to sidebar presented by law crime I'm Elizabeth moner in for Jesse Weber 14-year-old Colt gray appeared in court in person on Friday to hear the charges against him for counts of felony murder if you have any questions about these charges then uh I would urge you to discuss those with your attorney um I would invite you Mr Harmon to inform the court as to whether there's a request for Bond at this time at this time your honor there is not a request for Bond we will file the appropriate motions if that becomes necessary all right um an indictment by the grand jury for most felony offenses or accusations um well you have the right to receive an indictment for these offenses and I assume Mr Brad Smith is here on behalf of the DA's office or he is our district attorney so and he's accompanied by miss Patricia Brooks who is his chief assistant um a preliminary hearing you'll have the right also to a preliminary hearing unless you make a bond which of course at this point there's no bond being requested or unless you wave such a hearing you have the right to a speedy and public trial by a judge or jury you have the right to confront and cross-examine all Witnesses you have the right to call witnesses on your own behalf and testify in your own defense if you so choose as you sit here in this courtroom today under the law you are Presumed Innocent uh your refusal to testify at any point uh in any proceeding will not be used against you in determining whether you are guilty or not guilty so let me just inquire as to there whether there are any other uh items that the court should address before we conclude this preliminary hearing no no honor well I do have one piece of information to convey to the court there was a development yesterday afternoon that makes it necessary for our office to have alternate Council appointed and Arrangements have already been made in that regard I've already explained that to Mr Gray and Alternate Council will be appointed by the end of the day today all right all right thank you very much Miss dony Graves all right then uh with that this hearing is concluded and you may escort this defendant out after a brief recess the judge brought Colt back into the courtroom to clarify some things all right Mr Gray we visited a moment ago I just need to correct a couple of things on the record I correctly told you the maximum penalty for the crimes for which you are charged um that's correct except for the fact that uh you are under 18 years old so I wanted to inform you and make it clear to you that the penalty for the crimes for which you are charged do does not include death uh it includes um life without the possibility of parole or life with the possibility of parole I also wanted to inform you that the court has set December 4th at 8:30 a.m. for your preliminary hearing and uh that is of course subject to change as you secure new Council uh later today and so forth is there anything else that uh needs to be addressed that anyone can think of no your honor no your H all right so with that you may escort U Mr Colt gray back out thank you a few minutes later Colin Gray Colt's father also appeared in court he seemed emotional and rocked back and forth in his seat as the judge read the the charges and the penalty he could face if he's convicted I'm first going to ask you just a few a few questions and then I'm going to advise you of your rights and and uh also let you know about a preliminary hearing that's been scheduled um for you um why don't you just state your name please all right pull the microphone down please there you go all right and uh 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 okay all right so um the following aren't questions that I'm going to ask I'm just informing you of some things you have the right to remain silent anything you say can be used against you at further hearings or at a trial on the charges that you're facing uh for this hearing you're not going to be questioned about facts and circumstances surrounding uh your charges um you are currently charged with and you'll be provided with copies of the warrants if you don't already have them 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 man Slaughter you're charged with 8 counts of felony cruelty to children in the second degree now for these offenses uh for the felony murder counts um in the second degree felony murder in the second degree uh the maximum imprison the maximum penalty for each count is up to 30 years uh imprisonment for felony involuntary manslaughter of course again there are four counts the maximum uh penalty for for each of those offenses is 10 years uh imprisonment for the eight felony Cruelty to Children counts um the maximum penalty under the law for each of those eight counts is 10 years of imprisonment for a maximum total uh possible penalty for the charges that you currently are facing of 180 years imprisonment attorney sitting in as Council for Colin Gray also did not seek Bond on Friday opting to have his future court appointed Council file a motion at a later date if they want for now he scheduled to be back in court in December I want to thank Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring today's law and crime YouTube takeover the stories we cover here on sidebar and law crime are very tough and it shows that the world isn't unpredictable and at times very scary scary place so if you're ever hurt it can be scary and confusing especially if you don't know where to turn but Morgan and Morgan America's largest injury Law Firm can help this is a team with more than 1,000 attorneys you should want in your corner and there's a reason they're America's largest injury Law Firm they win a lot in the past few months they've secured multiple multi-million dollar verdicts that were actually considerably higher than the highest insurance offer and we're all on our phones so often that Morgan and Morgan makes this whole process so easy you don't even have to leave your couch from submitting your claim to uploading documents to signing contracts it can all be done from your phone in eight clicks or less so if you're ever injured you can start by easily submitting a claim at forth people.com youout takeover so here's what we know so far about what happened on Wednesday September 4th Witnesses say the shooter left his algebra class around 10:00 a.m. and came back to the classroom with an assault rifle has father reportedly gave him for Christmas when he couldn't get back into his math class Witnesses say the alleged shooter went to the classroom next door that's when he allegedly opened fire killing Mason skir horn and Christian angalo both 14 years old and teachers Richard aspenwall and Christina Ury school had only been back in session for about a month nine other people including eight students were injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital fortunately all nine are expected to be released and make a full recovery two school resource officers confronted gray according to Barrow County Sheriff judge Smith and he surrendered putting the gun on the ground after he was read his rights he reportedly made a chilling statement I did it arrest warrants for the alleged shooter charged him with four counts of felony murder for now he's being held at a youth detention center but he'll be tried as an adult according to authorities Wednesday was actually only the shooter second day at appalache high he was a transfer student who had only come to the school for part of the day on Tuesday Sheriff judge Smith told CNN that gray had left class on his first day to visit the counselor's office because he was having anxiety the next day he was only in class for about 30 minutes before the attack heartbreaking text messages have been posted on social media showing conversations between students inside the building and panicked friends and family outside Aaron Clark posted a text thread showing the messages school shooting right now I'm scared please I'm not joking a response where are you class someone's dead just one day after the shooting 54-year-old Colin Gray was arrested in connection with the shooting as you heard he's charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter two counts of second deegree murder and eight counts of Cruelty to Children the Georgia Bureau of Investigation says a brand new emergency alert system saved lives during the shooting the new technology was just installed last week several teachers were also able to press buttons on on badges to call for help and put the school on a hard lockdown please lift up our community please keep these children these teachers we call them teachers but I call them Heroes um we met with them today emotions are very high obviously but we told them that we love them we love our teachers and what they do and we're very happy at the fact that they stood in the gap between evil to protect their children and we want to include them in the save the lives that were saved as well yesterday we're heartbroken a young person brought a gun into a school committed an evil act and he took lives and he injured many other people not only physically but mentally but I'm proud of bar County I'm proud of our superintendent I'm proud of these teachers I'm proud of these schools and I'm proud of where I live and we're get past this if you see behind me up here on the hill we got a vigil going on at our flag pole I welcome you to go see those kids and those young people that are hurting we want to talk about the victims in the shooting 14-year-old Mason skir horn had recently started at the high school his mother says he was living with autism and could be easily spooked there were searches for Mason and all the chaos on the day of the shooting with his family hopeful that he was hiding somewhere but they soon learned he was actually one of the victims VI a family friend told the New York Times he really enjoyed life he always had an upbeat attitude about everything 14-year-old Christian angalo was also killed his sister wrote on a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses he was loved by so many his loss was so sudden and unexpected we are truly heartbroken he really didn't deserve this the two teachers who lost their lives were both math instructors 39-year-old rich and aspenwall was also the high school football team's defense coordinator the husband and father of two little girls is being remembered as someone who is kind-hearted and hardworking 53-year-old Christian aramy an algebra teacher also died from gunshot wounds the native of Romania was active in the Romanian community and worked as a dance instructor she was actually celebrating her birthday on the day of the shooting a friend told CNN she decided to bake a cake and bring pizza to her class the day she died so she could celebrate her birthday with her kids GoFundMe page have been set up for each victim's families several of the surviving victims have also been identified Taylor Jones was LIF flighted to gr Memorial Hospital a level one Trauma Center in Atlanta she's listed as being in stable condition her family didn't say exactly what her injuries were but said she will have to undergo more surgeries and physical therapy David Phoenix was another math teacher in part of the building where gray allegedly opened fire Witnesses say when they heard loud banging sounds Phoenix went to open the classroom door and that's when he was shot another teacher was able to scramble to the door and shut it Phoenix's daughter wrote on Facebook that when David woke up from surgery on Wednesday he immediately wanted to know if everyone else was okay he will also need additional surgeries but is expected to recover so what exactly was the motive behind such a destructive and heinous act of violence that's what investigators are trying to figure out right now it appears gray had a troubling home life growing up he was living with his father Colin while his mother Marcy lived with her parents hours away in Fitzgerald Georgia gry's mom Marcy has a criminal history dating back to 2007 she was sentenced to jail last December around the time it's believed Colin Gray bought his son an AR-15 style rifle for Christmas in December gray pled guilty to counts of using a license plate to conceal identity damage to property and trespassing slam violence Marcy was sentenced to 5 years in jail but only served 46 days before she was released on probation she had to take part in a family violent Intervention Program and not use drugs or alcohol but then in April of this year Marcy was charged in connection with a case of aggravated battery of a 73-year-old woman she allegedly threw the woman against the wall broke a mirror in her home and tied the woman's hands and feets to keep her from leaving she reportedly has not yet been indicted in that case and was released on bond Marcy has previously said on her LinkedIn page that she was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband Colin court records shows she had been banned from contacting Colin Gray without some sort of third-party intermediary being involved a neighbor who lived next door to the graves at their home in Jefferson Georgia back in 2022 said she would hear screaming and yelling all the time and that sometimes Marcy would lock the children outside she also claimed to the New York post that she would sometimes find Marcy passed out behind the wheel of her car in the driveway Neighbors near the Gray's current home in wer say they mostly kept to themselves the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Marcy gray was sued by a Chevrolet dealership in 2019 she reportedly bought a Chevy Suburban using a $10,000 check as a down payment but the check bounced Marcy was ordered to pay the dealership around $119,000 which included the money initially owed plus interest and attorney fees as news started to come out about the shooting at appalache high the alleged Shooter's aunt and Marcy's sister Annie Pam Miss Brown started writing on Facebook and her post immediately went viral a now deleted post said in part quote I am not scared I will not back down I will not disrespect other parents and families that are dealing with this tragedy on the opposite end they did not deserve this with that said I will not leave my nephew standing alone when yaldi happened I told my own children only hurt people hurt people I did everything I could to fight for my nephew I will take care of my nephew and what he needs on this side just check yourself before you speak about a child that never asked to deal with the BS he saw on a daily basis Pam Miss Brown was immediately condemned by people in the comments and she soon deleted the post meantime within hours of the school shooting on Wednesday the FBI's Atlanta field office released information about school shooting threats made in May of last year that were connected back to Colt gray we got our hands on the Jackson County investigative report about the conversation between deputies and Colt as well as his father Colin the FBI had gotten a tip that someone play to shoot up a middle school the next day the info came from a user on a Discord chat Discord is an online platform mainly used by video Gamers to live stream investigators were able to connect the account to an email address linked to Colt I responded to this address and spoke with Colin Gray and his 13-year-old son Colt Colin stated that he does not know what Discord is stating that he works full-time and does not play video games Colin allowed me to speak with Colt Colt stated he used to have a Discord account but deleted it prior to moving from their previous address cold expressed concern that someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school stating that he would never say such a thing even in a joking manner Colin informed me that he does have firearms in the house but that they are hunting rifles he stated Colt is allowed to use them when supervised but he does not have unfed access to them this was prior to Colin allegedly purchasing a rifle from Colt for Christmas last year investigators linked the school school shooting threat to multiple IP addresses all over the country because that exact source of the threat couldn't be identified neither Colts nor col and gray were detained the Sheriff's Office report States at this time due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI the allegation that colt or Colin is the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated this case will be exceptionally cleared as law enforcement dealt with the Mayhem and uncertainty surrounding the shooting at appalache High High School other North Georgia school districts were dealing with threats of their own in one case Gainesville police arrested a 14-year-old charging him with making a terroristic threat and disrupting operation of a public school after an alleged threat started circulating on social media officials in Athens Clark County also announced they had a person in custody for hoax threats this one a 12-year-old they say he posted photos of guns he found online and listed names of schools there were Rumors in the hours after the attack that there was more than one shooter and that they plan to Target as many schools as possible in fact another teen in Jackson County where Colt gray lived until recently Was Heard saying on a school bus that he planned to quote finish the job deputies tracked the student down and arrested him he's now in the same Youth Detention Center as Colt the sheriff said those rumors were unfounded and it appeared Colt gray was the Lone perpetrator a second vigil is planned for Friday night at a park in wer grief counselors are expected to be there to help anyone who might need it of course we'll continue to follow this case closely and bring you the latest that does it for this episode of sidebar you can watch more episodes and subscribe to us anywhere you get your podcast I'm Elizabeth Milner and this has been sidebar presented by law and crime [Music]