Bodycam footage shows visit to suspected shooter’s Georgia home in 2023
Two police officers visit the Grays’ home in Georgia. They speak with the suspected shooter and his father, Colin Gray, about threats of a school shooting.
Recently released bodycam footage shows Colt Gray and his father being questioned by police more than a year before the 14-year-old shot and killed four people and injured nine others at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, last week, according to authorities.
Colt Gray was charged with four counts of murder. His father, Colin Gray, was also arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of manslaughter and eight counts of second-degree child abuse. The two appeared before a judge in the same Barrow County courtroom on Friday. The two remain behind bars.
Colt Gray is accused of killing his classmates Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo (both 14) as well as math teachers Richard Aspinwall (39) and Cristina Irimie (53) at Apalachee High School on Wednesday.
Colin Gray is the first father in Georgia to be charged in an attack allegedly committed by his child, prosecutors said. “These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a gun,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
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The video shows the interaction between a father and son and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office officers in May 2023 in response to a tip about online threats to commit a school shooting, including images of weapons.
The threats were posted via an account on the social media platform Discord, which the FBI was able to trace to Colt Gray via an email address. District authorities notified local schools and asked Colin Gray to keep his son home from school, but there was no probable cause for an arrest, according to the FBI’s Atlanta division.
In the video obtained by USA TODAY, Gray told investigators that his son had access to the guns in the house, but said he tried to teach him how to handle guns safely.
“He knows how bad guns are, what they can do and how to use them and how not to use them,” said Gray, an older man who wears a silver cross necklace and holds a can as he speaks to police outside his door.
“We do a lot of shooting. We do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year,” Gray said. He told investigators a picture on his phone showed his son “with blood on his cheeks because he shot his first deer,” according to the video.
The elder Gray said he was “surprised” by the idea that his son had made the threats and that both he and his son took it very seriously.
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“I’ll be mad as hell if he does that, and then all the guns will disappear.”
Months after the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley were each sentenced to at least 10 years in prison in April, the charges against Colin Gray join a growing trend of parents being held accountable when their children commit mass shootings.
Colt Gray linked to username that refers to Sandy Hook shooter
Investigators also noticed the Discord account’s username – Russian letters that translate to “Lanza,” referring to Adam Lanza, the gunman who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
The teenager denied making the online threats and said he last used a now-deleted Discord account several months earlier. “The only thing I have is TikTok and I just go there and watch videos,” he said.
Colin Gray told officers that his son was being “teased” at school.
He said he had told the principal during a school visit three days earlier that his son was “getting nervous under pressure” and “couldn’t think clearly” and asked the school to “support him and get him through seventh grade.”
According to the video, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Officer Colin Gray said the Discord account had been pinged to his old address.
Gray responded that he and his son had moved after being evicted from the family home. His wife, Marcee Gray, had taken the couple’s two younger children and moved in with their mother while he lived with Colt in a rental home. “He was having trouble at first with the separation and everything,” Gray said.
The video’s release came days after reports that Marcee Gray called the Apalachee High School counselor about an “extreme emergency” and said her son needed to be found immediately on the morning of the shooting. Gray made the 10-minute call about a half-hour before her son allegedly opened fire, The Washington Post reported.
Charles Polhamus, Colt Gray’s grandfather, told the New York Post that Marcee Gray rushed to the school after receiving a text from her son saying, “I’m sorry, mom.” Brown and Polhamus declined to comment to USA TODAY. Marcee Gray could not be reached for comment.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. You can reach her by email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.
