Colt Gray, the 14-year-old gunman accused of killed four people at his high school in Georgia, appeared in court for the first time on Friday to be charged with murder, less than 24 hours after his father’s arrest in connection with the bloody massacre.
Gray, armed with AR rifles, opened shot wednesday morning inside the classrooms of Apalachee High School in the suburb of Winder, about 50 miles outside of Atlanta. Local authorities were alerted to the violence by new technology on teacher identification badges: a small button that, when pressed, notifies police of a potential active situation.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said emergency services were on the scene within minutes of receiving the call, but it was a school resource officer who first confronted Gray. The teenager immediately surrendered, the sheriff added, and he was arrested without further incident.
Two math teachersRichard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, were killed in the rampage earlier this week, as were Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, who were both 14-year-old students at Apalachee, officials confirmed.
Another nine people, including another teacher, were injured, the police said.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the man’s father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, armed was also arrestedwith authorities claiming he facilitated the shooting by allowing his son to possess a deadly weapon. He was booked into the Barrow County Jail on Thursday and faces 14 charges, including four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
Law enforcement sources told NBC that the elder Gray gave the AR rifle to his son as a Christmas present, despite being interviewed by law enforcement officials in May 2023 in connection with reported online threats to carry out a school shooting.