The 14-year-old charged with killing two fellow students and two teachers at his Georgia high school made his first court appearance on Friday – with his father, who was arrested late on Thursday, set to appear shortly afterwards.
Colt Gray appeared in person, dressed in green prison scrubs and hands and ankles shackled to his waist at the hearing in Barrow county courthouse, having previously been understood to be planning to attend by video link. He traveled from the youth detention facility in which he is being held. He is being detained there as a juvenile, even though he is expected to be tried as an adult.
The suspect has been charged with four counts of felony murder after he was arrested on Wednesday after a gun rampage at Apalachee high school in Winder, outside Atlanta. Four people were fatally shot – students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and mathematics teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
A further nine people were injured, of whom seven were understood to have suffered gunshot wounds.
The younger Gray did not enter a plea on Friday, but answered yes when the judge asked him if he could read and write, and he was accompanied by a lawyer.
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The judge, Currie Mingledorff, initially told the 14-year-old that he could face the death penalty, then later brought the boy back into court to tell him that, as he is under 18, he does not face the death penalty, and faces the maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole, if he is convicted.
The teen’s father, Colin Gray, 54, was arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia bureau of investigation has disclosed. The charges are said to be directly related to the school shooting and to the father allowing his son to possess a weapon.
On Thursday night, CNN reported that Colin Gray told investigators this week that he had given the AR-15 style rifle to his son in December last year as a Christmas present, having bought it at a local gun store. That would have been seven months after the FBI interviewed both the father and son in May 2023 after having been tipped off about threats to commit a school shooting posted on the gaming social media platform Discord.
That investigation was eventually closed after investigators were unable to substantiate the threats.