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ATLANTA (CN) — The trial for the father of a 14-year-old accused of fatally shooting four people at a Georgia high school is set to begin Monday, marking first time the parent of a school shooter suspect has been charged with murder.
Colin Gray faces 29 charges, including second-degree murder, manslaughter, cruelty to children and reckless conduct, in connection with the attack at Apalachee High School on Sept. 4, 2024.
His son, Colt Gray, is accused of opening fire on students and staff. Two other 14-year-old students and two teachers were killed. Several others were injured.
Prosecutors accuse Gray of committing cruelty to children by giving his son access to a gun and ammunition “after receiving sufficient warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the bodily safety of another.” It defines the second-degree murder charge as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children.
Prosecutors claim Gray gave his son the assault rifle used in the attack as a Christmas gift and allowed him to keep it next to his bed, despite concerns about his son’s mental health. He later bought his son a tactical vest, ammunition and sights for the weapon and larger-capacity magazines for the rifle at his son’s request, according to investigators.
Gray purportedly gave the gun to his son after local authorities came to their home in May 2023 to discuss a tip they received from the FBI about school shooting threats reportedly made by his son online on the messaging app Discord. Despite the father and the teen acknowledging having access to several weapons at home, local deputies left the home and determined there was not enough evidence to tie Colt Gray to the online posts, which he denied making.
Investigators testified that the father was aware that his son was fascinated with school shooters, even keeping a shrine above his home computer for the gunman in the 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida, but didn’t take any action.
Fifteen jurors were selected from Hall County, about 25 miles away from Barrow County, where the trial is taking place. Chief Judge Nicholas Primm said jurors will be transported by bus each day from there to the trial.
If convicted, Colin Gray would be the first parent in Georgia’s history to be found criminally liable for providing a weapon their child used for a mass shooting, mirroring a handful of other cases around the country.
In 2021, Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first parents in the U.S. to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting at a school by their child. They were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for gifting their 15-year-old son, Ethan, a gun, which he used to kill four students and wound others at Michigan’s Oxford High School. Both parents are currently serving 10-year prison sentences, after prosecutors said they ignored their son’s mental health concerns and opportunities to intervene just hours before the violence unfolded.
Jeffrey Rupnow, 42, faces up to 18 years in prison for intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a minor causing death. His 15-year-old daughter, Natalie Rupnow, killed a student and a teacher at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, and injured six others before she killed herself in December 2024. According to prosecutors, Rupnow said he bought the two handguns she brought into the school for her as a way to bond with her and that he gave her the access code to the safe where he stored her guns.
Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanors and was sentenced to 60 days in jail for endorsing his son’s Illinois gun permit in 2019 despite knowing Robert Crimo III had expressed suicidal thoughts and murder threats. In 2022, Crimo III opened fire at a Fourth of July Parade in Chicago’s Highland Park, killing seven people.
Colt Gray was detained by school resource officers at the scene of the crime and although he is being held at a juvenile facility in Gainesville, Georgia, he is being prosecuted as an adult.
The teen was indicted on 55 charges including felony murder, malice murder, aggravated battery, cruelty to children in the first degree and aggravated assault. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
No trial date has been set yet, as his defense team is awaiting results from a mental evaluation and processing evidence.
His mother, Marcee Gray, lived separately from him and his father. She reportedly called the school just an hour before the shooting asking administrators to check on her son after she received a text message saying, “I’m sorry, mom.”
Marcee Gray told investigators that Colin Gray was supposed to pick her up for them to take their son to Advantage Behavioral Health Center in Athens, Georgia. Colt Gray’s school counselor recommended the visit because their son was having anxiety attacks and possible suicidal ideations. But according to the mother, Colin Gray refused, saying he had no money for gas.
The mother has already faced a slew of her own criminal charges for tying her elderly mother to a chair after she refused to take her to go confront her ex-husband in the weeks following their son’s arrest. She was then arrested in Barrow County and sentenced to five years in jail for possessing drugs, including fentanyl and meth, and damaging Colin Gray’s work vehicle.
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