The 14-year-old boy suspected of shooting and killing four people at a high school in Georgia will not face the death penalty.
Colt Gray appeared at a court hearing on Friday, a day after his father was arrested for allowing his son to have a weapon.
He was called back into the courtroom after he had been escorted out in shackles for the judge to correct an earlier misstatement that his crimes could be punishable by death.
The judge said because he is a juvenile the maximum sentence he could face is life without parole.
Gray is accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in the city of Winder, outside Atlanta.
One teacher and eight students were also injured in the attack on Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. They are expected to make a full recovery.
Colt Gray in the Barrow County courthouse. Pic: AP
Gray was charged as an adult with four counts of murder in the deaths of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.
His lawyer declined to seek bail at the court hearing.
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His father Colin Gray was arrested for allowing his son to have a weapon.
The 54-year-old has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder.
Read more on this story:
What we know about Colt Gray
School shooting victims named
Colin Gray in the Barrow County courthouse. Pic: Reuters
Father’s charges ‘directly connected with actions of his son’
Arrest warrants said he caused the deaths of others “by providing a firearm to Colt Gray with the knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others”.
“His charges are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The judge told Colin Gray he faces up to 180 years in prison.
Father and son questioned by police last year
Colt Gray and his father were interviewed last year in connection with online threats about a school shooting made on the gaming platform Discord following a tip-off from the FBI.
Investigators said the teenager denied making the comments.
At the time, Colin Gray told officials he had hunting guns locked in a safe in the house but his son did not have access to them.
He said his son had struggled with his parents’ separation and often got picked on at school.
“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” Colin Gray said, according to a transcript of the interview.
The case was closed after neither Colt nor Colin Gray could be connected to the Discord account, while no grounds were found to confiscate the family’s guns, according to police reports released by the sheriff’s office.
Colin Gray bought his son an AR-style rifle as a gift after the pair were questioned, law enforcement sources told NBC News.