Mugshot of Colin Gray, father of the alleged school attacker

Police in Georgia have arrested the father of the 14-year-old who allegedly killed two students and two teachers and injured nine others in an attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), 54-year-old Colin Gray, father of suspected shooter Colt Gray, faces multiple charges including four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, GBI stated that the older Gray “knowingly allowed his son, Colt, to have the weapon.”

Second-degree murder, defined in Georgia as causing the death of another person while committing second-degree cruelty to children, regardless of intent, is punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison. The charges against the father came after his son was charged with four counts of felony murder in connection with the shooting. More charges are expected for the younger Gray in the wounding of others at the school.

At his first court appearance this morning, Colin Gray was represented by a public defender and did not ask for bond. With all the charges filed against him, the elder Gray could face up to 180 years in prison.

Colin Gray’s arrest came as reports surfaced about the FBI having investigated the younger Gray last year for allegedly making anonymous threats to shoot up a school. According to the sheriff’s office, authorities were not able to substantiate the threat and the investigation was closed.

At the time, according to a Fox News report, the father told investigators during the visit to Gray’s home that he had hunting rifles in the house, but that “Colt is allowed to use them when supervised but does not have unfettered access to them.”

Now, however, federal law enforcement sources close to the investigation are saying that the gun used in the attack, an AR-style rifle, was purchased by the elder Gray as a gift for his son last December, likely resulting in the serious charges.

Matthew Kilgo, an attorney with Georgia Gun Lawyers and an independent program attorney for U.S. LawShield, said because of the specific charges against the elder Gray, prosecutors will likely have their work cut out for them. The state does not have a safe storage law, and among the initial charges, involuntary manslaughter typically deals with acts other than a felony, which the father has not been charged with.

“The issue centers around whether the father’s act or failure to act [in allowing the juvenile access to the firearm] constituted negligence that a reasonable person would not have committed,” Kilgo said. “It’s so wide and muddy that any act that the state at this point could perceive that the dad took that would have allowed his son to gain access to the gun is probably OK for charging because the level of proof for charging, probable cause, is so many steps down the wrung from beyond reasonable doubt. The problem then becomes that level of proof gets raised extremely high when you go to trial. So, that same level that would cause you to be arrested may not be enough to cause you to be convicted. And it’s got to be that level of negligence that a reasonable person would or would not have taken. The evidence they will need for the cruelty to children and second degree murder charges to be proven will need to show the dad’s actions—or failures to act—deviated from what a ‘reasonable person’ would do.”

The charges against Colin Gray come just five months after the parents of a Michigan teen who killed four students at Oxford High School in 2021 were each sentenced to 10 years in prison for not preventing their son from possessing the gun he used in the murders.

“These convictions are not about poor parenting,” Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews said at the time. “These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.”

As we reported earlier today, the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia has resulted in widespread calls from anti-gun activists for more restrictive gun laws.

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71 COMMENTS

  1. This guy’s mistake was picking a terrible mother to have children with She’s a junkie criminal who is all messed up and the kid gets a double whammy of whackadoodle genes and being raised by this snapcracklepop mom at home as well as lefty woke “teachers” at school.

    This guy probably has issues too since he chose a girl 15 years younger than him as a mate. Was he so immature himself that he wasn’t attracted to grown-up women his own age?

    No wonder the kid ended up cracked.

    • Well according to the smartest people in the room. Using drugs is a great and wonderful freedom we have in america.

      They would never say it’s wrong. That would be being judgemental.

      • So your idea of Freedom and Liberty is having people you don’t know decide what you can and cannot ingest in your own body. Got it. Sounds like Kamala Harris would be your ideal president.

        • No. But I want to know if someone is a drug user if I want to employ them, rent to them, or otherwise do business or have a relationship with them.

          You can do all the f*ing drugs you want, but just not while employed by me, or living in or otherwise using my property.

          Freedom both ways. Sound good??

          • to Johnny LeBlanc

            This is the problem with the drug l.eg.@[email protected] crowd. They really don’t believe in freedom. Because they don’t believe in accepting the consequences and responsibilities that go with it.

            • Ahh, so you are one of those all knowing folks, just like the Democrats.

              How is what you said any different from the anti-Freedom folks telling us that we cannot own a firearm because we don’t believe in accepting the consequences and responsibilities that go with it?

        • to Sho Rembo

          It seems you don’t understand how the 1st Amendment works. I have an american birthright to make judgmental statements.

        • Nobody really cares if you go do drugs in your own house eventually even killing your self except maybe your family. It’s all the stupid collateral damage drugs do that gets the rest of us involved. Stealing to pay for the drugs is just one issue. Driving under the influence, neglecting children or other responsibilities, even walking into the street causing accidents. There are dozens of examples. Drug abuse doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

          • “Drug abuse doesn’t happen in a vacuum.”

            Drug Prohibition did not happen in a vacuum, either. Historically, stealing was not an issue in the passage of it.

            Super human negroes with pistols was front and center.

            In my view, a big concern was that everyone would be too high to fight in a war. This was before they realized that people on amphetamines fight way better.

            Also it can be seen as a huge power grab by the doctors – the need for prescriptions to access medicines was AFAIK unknown prior to 1905.

            It certainly did not take long for organized crime types to exploit the situation – gun control, and alcohol and narcotics-fuelled mafias enabled by it, ruled NYC and much of the NE by 1920.

            Now our borders, among other important stuff, are controlled by the same beast.

            Please wake the hell up.

      • Just because something is stupid and counterproductive doesn’t mean it should be illegal.

        Lots of dumb people smoke and it basically kills them all in the end -sooner or later. Cancer cures smoking.

        Other dumb stuff is watching sports on TV. It’s a totally worthless and counterproductive idiotic thing to do. But then again watching anything on TV is pretty idiotic. .It doesn’t mean it should be illegal.

      • Personal responsibility. We don’t need daddy government running our lives. You do too much drugs, you’ll suffer the consequences. Hold this moron accountable for handing his known psychopath kid a gun.

        We have a culture problem that swirls around fucked up families that have no accountability. Start holding them accountable to send a message to all the other moron parents out there.

        • to Anonymous

          You are correct. We don’t need big daddy government. We just need to be able to kill drug addicts. When they steal in order to pay for their drugs.

          There is no need for the government to be involved.

    • My wife is 28 years younger than me and was picked out for me by my now deceased 1st wife. I wanted to start a second family so I needed someone young enough to pop out the 5 more children that I want. She had her MBA and JD shortly before she turned 22 so you could hardly call her immature.

    • “This guy’s mistake was picking a terrible mother to have”

      His mistake was buying a 14 yo kid an AR; a kid who at 13 had already been investigated by the feds for publishing a desire to SHOOT PEOPLE.

      Holy crap, have you lost your mind? Cogitate on the ENORMITY of that, please. Would you give ffg to a kid that wanted to blow up a school?

      • “Holy crap, have you lost your mind?“

        No, he just hates women and blames them for everything.

        The 14-year-old would’ve had great difficulty accessing a firearm unless his father bought it for him, which he did.

        Sure, both are responsible for bad parenting, but only one parent is the one who put the gun in his hand, even after he knew that he had made threats to shoot people.

        So just a quick straw poll, how many people here think age restrictions on buying firearms are unconstitutional and should be abolished?

  2. From what I have read, the FBI, the local LEOs, and the school all knew this kid was a potential danger. They did nothing. But the Dad is facing decades in prison.

    • The purpose of any system is what it does.
      We’re left to conclude the FBI does nothing or, perhaps, the FBI grooms schizos to act out. A government agency would never artificially boost its perceived value by manufacturing issues for it to pretend to solve. Would it?

      • Illness is good for business

        Government doesn’t create business it creates its own “business” by getting in yours.

        • Body cam video of the sheriffs deputy interview with the shooter and his father is now available on YouTube, search:

          “Body camera footage shows interview of Colt, Colin Gray on 2023 school shooting online threat“

      • To give the FBI or other law enforcement some benefit of a doubt, you can’t (and shouldn’t be able to) prosecute someone for pre-crime. You can commit a dangerously insane individual. I don’t know if the kid might have met that criterion, or if he was evaluated for that.

        Going back to the topic of the general thread, a parent can’t really prevent their kid from committing an act of violence if the kid is determined. But a parent can ensure that if the kid does commit an act of violence, they don’t do it with a tool the parent provides. In principle I think a parent does have a responsibility to take all reasonable measures to keep weapons out of the hands of their kid who has previously threatened violence.

    • “They did nothing“

      What would you have had them do?

      Arrest the child after the threat?

      Confiscate firearms in the household?

      What authority would they have had to take any action?

  3. It’s not unconstitutional for the FBI to go and investigate anyone. Who made threats to school children. I guess they were to busy ignoring Hunter Biden and his lap top.

    • “I guess they were to busy”

      No, they did investigate the threat, trace the IP address, referred it to the local sheriffs department who made a visit to the physical location to talk with the father and son.

      Don’t you think it was reasonable to involve the local authorities?

      And I am sure, if the FBI had swooped in based on the threat and confiscated the firearms, everyone on here would be whining about the federal government ‘overreaching’ and confiscating firearms unconstitutionally for ‘pre-crime’.

      But since the FBI referred it to the local authorities, now everyone here is whining that the FBI did not do enough.

  4. Well the obvious question, Why in the hell would you buy a firearm for a kid who is preaching harm and has been investigated for same? Additionally, was there a strong gun lockup? Never trust a teenager. I’ve experience in that.

    • Agreed. Once it was disclosed that daddy bought a 14 year old with anger management issues an AR, you could see his arrest coming from a mile off.

    • Most of the so called gun safes are not safes at all and are instead considered residential security containers. You can break into most of them just by watching YouTube videos that show you how.

      • All a safe does — any safe — is slow down any kind of access, other than the intended method (key, key code, fingerprint reader, whatever).

        The better (and also, in general, more expensive) the safe is, the longer it will take to break in and the more noise will be made while doing so.

        Burglaries are generally over and done with in like 5 minutes or less. They aren’t sticking around, they aren’t interested in getting caught.

        If the crook can’t bust it open in about 30 seconds, they won’t bother trying. They are much more likely to attempt to get the whole thing (possibly with a crowbar or the like) & throw it in the back of a pickup, zoom outta there, and go to town at their leisure.

        You don’t need some kind of bank vault. You do need to keep the keys/codes secure, be careful about who knows what you have & where it is, and you need to make it difficult for someone to just grab it and run (i.e. bolt it down).

        Will it stop a safecracker? No. But 99.9% of criminals aren’t safecrackers.

    • Maybe dad is an asshole and raised his kid to be an asshole.
      The kind of man who challenges people to push-up contests and proclaims “no one fucks with a Biden.”

    • “Well the obvious question, Why in the hell would you buy a firearm for a kid who is preaching harm and has been investigated for same?”

      The pathological need to not believe their kid “Would *ever* do anything like that!”…

    • “Why in the hell would you buy a firearm for a kid who is preaching harm“

      Hmmm… Just who was it pumping propaganda that every American should be armed for the coming SHTF time, when good Americans will need their second amendment rights to protect against the tyrannical government?

  5. He should be; he knew Lil Joe dirt was a mental case; they already had a visit from the FBI and the local sheriff last year. Keep him locked up. He’s just as much to blame.

  9. The Discord account that the FBI had linked to Colt Gray last year referenced plans for a future mass shooting and shared screenshots of firearms, according to documents obtained by CNN.

    “im committing a mass shooting and im waiting a good 2-3 years,” stated the account user, according to screenshots included in an FBI incident report from May 2023 obtained by CNN. “I cant kill myself yet, cause I’m not contributing anything to culture I need to go out knowing I did.”

    The account referenced Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, and in separate posts shared a desire to target an elementary school and expressed frustration that transgender people were being accepted in society.

    Above a photograph of two firearms, the account posted, “I’m ready.”

    • so like the mentally ill Nashville trans shooter, and all the other mentally ill school-shooters, he really wanted to kill himself after planning to, and carrying out, something that would give him recognition. He just did it using the ‘suicide by cop’ method.

      Oh my, what a uniquely left-wing mental illness thing to do – over 90% of left-wing liberals that commit suicide do so after planning to do and doing something that would give them recognition. Its almost like..well it is, ‘validation seeking’. Left-wing liberal men and women do it all the time, express that mental illness ‘validation seeking’ thing by various methods and to various degrees (e.g. publicly, on line, you see it in TDS people a lot, we see it here with Miner49er in his TDS expression, you see it more pronounced and obvious in the Trans and gay community through words and looks that scream ‘look at me! Acknowledge me! Say what I want to hear! Make me feel like I want to be!’. Especially in left wing liberal women that are ~5 times more likely to be mentally ill than any other demographic.

    • “expressed frustration that transgender people were being accepted in society“

      Well, there you have it, he was a violent gun-owner who wanted to kill people who practiced alternative sexual lifestyles.

      Hmmm… I wonder who put that idea into his head?

      “Republican Faces Backlash for Praising Plan to Kill Gay People
      Published Dec 27, 2023 at 1:09 PM EST

      Republican Congressman Tim Walberg is facing criticism on social media following support for Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill, widely called the “Kill the Gays” law.

      On Wednesday, Salon, considered a liberal news organization,reported that in October, Walberg traveled to Uganda and delivered a speech where he spoke about his support for the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ law.

      “Though the rest of the world is pushing back on you…though there are other major countries that are trying to get into you and ultimately change you, stand firm. Stand firm,” Walberg said about Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law while delivering a speech at Uganda’s National Prayer Breakfast.“

  10. Given the kid’s known issues, it was stupid to allow him access to guns (or anything else).

    However. I think that jailing him for his son’s actions (which is what this really is, even though technically it isn’t) would set a very dangerous precedent.

    It’s the parents job to see that the kid has a home, is fed, is educated, receives appropriate medical care, etc. But kids have minds of their own. The older the kid, the more that is true, and the less able the parents are to control the kid’s actions.

    Sorry. Not everyone gets to have the best parents. Bad parenting (aside from actual abuse/neglect) is not a crime. And I don’t think that jailing them really furthers the pursuit of justice.

    • Sorry, you give a kid a troubled kid a gun that’s criminally negligent. Judgement that bad indicates you, the parent, can’t be trusted with guns.

      • It hasn’t been all that long since the Crumbley parents had their day in court, and the media certainly made it common enough knowledge that a similarly situated parent might take notice and reconsider the security arrangement at their home.

    • “How can (they) charge the father in that case.”

      They think they can convince a jury that giving a rifle to a clearly troubled youth is grossly, criminally-negligent.

      And they just might do that…

  12. They need to start arresting the parents of these gangbanger thugs That are about the same age as the shooter.. Since they want to blame a person for what a child does.. But that would be politically incorrect and rayciss..

  14. If you recrive a visit from LE about your son you best see to it you watch the twerp like a hawk. And then again there’s the fbi who failed to see the writing on the wall and let the kid slide…apparently they have diplomatic immunity.

    Good news is at least the usual suspects can’t say usual suspects. Bad news is teachers should have been armed…
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=7_uvEuNwUj4&feature=shared

  17. “said because of the specific charges against the elder Gray, prosecutors will likely have their work cut out for them.”

    Bullshit. Middle-aged white male, in GA, generally speaking. the best you can expect is a hung jury. “Not guilty” is probably not an option.

    But this guy is super toast – the prosecution could charge him with importing and molesting extra-terrestrial babies, show up in court drunk, flip off the jury and still get a quick conviction.

    His best chance is finding a woke jury or antigun appeals judge who lets him off in an attempt to inflame the debate.

    • Texas Jury just acquitted the Santa Fe shooter’s parent from any fault.
      10 Dead Biden Arsenal (Shotgun + Revolver)
      It was civil trial over money, Plaintiff’s attorneys have not yet realized that you cannot get blood out of a turnip. District judge protected the School District, who shared major blame.

  19. Note to author: it’s “rung”, not “wrung”.

    Maybe the father should have spent the $ on rent, rather than an AR for his nutjob son.

    Nah.

  20. When the FBI investigated the kid, they found no cause for charges. They are the “experts” who were empowered to make that judgment. The father relied on their judgment. Both were wrong. So how come the Father faces prison, but the “experts” who dropped the ball don’t?

    • Totally different. FBI has to meet the legal standard of evidence to bring charges, parents don’t. They also know their child better.

      Lastly, gun owners love to brag about how responsible and safe they are. Well, how is shirking the duty of parenting off on the government an example of being responsible by their own standards? It isn’t.

      • Parents are encouraged to trust experts with their children all the time — teachers, counselors, social workers, police. If parents are supposed to trust these people, they should have skin in the game.

    • “When the FBI investigated the kid, they found no cause for charges”

      The FBI referred the matter to the local authorities, who made a visit but decided to take no action.

      If the FBI had not notified the local authorities and rather swooped in to confiscate the firearms because of the threat, then you would be whining about big government ‘overreach’ seizing firearms unconstitutionally for ‘pre-crime’.

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