The mother of the suspected Apalachee High School mass shooter called the school hours before the shooting about an “extreme emergency” involving her 14-year-old son, according to a report.
Newly revealed text messages indicate that there were warning signs about 14-year-old suspected shooter Colt Gray’s mental health one week ahead of when he is accused of opening fire at his own high school in Winder, Georgia on Wednesday, killing four people and injuring nine others, The Washington Post reported.
But a mere hour and a half before the mass shooting, Marcee Gray, his mother, phoned the school at 9.50am warning school officials to check on her son “immediately”, according to the Post.
The suspect’s mother also confirmed she made the call in texts sent to relatives.
“I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school,” Marcee Gray texted her sister after the shooting, according to the Post, which obtained the messages. “I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”
On the call, a school counselor informed the panicked mother that her son had been talking about a school shooting that morning, Annie Brown, Marcee’s sister, told the outlet.
Around 10am, after the call, a school administrator approached Colt Gray in his math class, a student in the classroom at the time told the Post. But confusion ensued. There was a student with a similar name to the now-suspected shooter, and neither student was in the room when the school official walked in and left with the other student’s backpack.
Moments later, around 10.20am, gunshots rang out.
After the shooting, Marcee complained about the time gap between her call to the school and when her son opened fire, texts reveal. She wrote to Brown that it was “just a long time for them to intervene so I’m curious to know what happened in that time.”
It’s unclear what caused the delay or whether the administrator was looking for Colt Gray due to his mother’s call after all. The Independent has reached out to the school and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for comment.
Texts also revealed that the family and school officials were discussing the suspected shooter’s mental well-being one week before the shooting.
One week before the shooting, Deborah Polhamus, Colt Gray’s grandmother, had met with a school counselor for help for him, and texted Brown afterward that he “starts with the therapist tomorrow,” the outlet reported.
Days later, on August 29, Brown praised the plans for the teen to seek therapy to a relative, but added that she was worried about his mental health in combination with his close proximity to guns in the home.
“He has been having homicidal and suicidal thoughts, he shouldn’t have a gun, and he should’ve been in THERAPY months ago,” Brown texted.
After the tragedy, authorities detained Colt Gray, who has been charged with murder. He will be tried as an adult over the shootings.
The Post’s reporting offers even more insight into the seemingly troubled life of the teen.
In May 2023, the FBI was already looking into the teen. Local investigators interviewed Colt Gray and his father Colin, 54, after they had received a tip from the FBI that the then 13-year-old “had possibly threatened to shoot up a middle school tomorrow.”
Months later, Colin Gray reportedly purchased an AR-15-style rifle as a holiday gift in December 2023 for his son.
More recently, authorities searched the high school freshman’s bedroom this week, finding documents referencing other mass shootings. Law enforcement sources told the New York Times that he was “obsessed” with the shooting.
On Thursday, Colin Gray, 54, the father of the suspect, was arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.