New footage shows suspected school shooter Colt Gray with blood on his face and posing with a deadly AR-15 rifle a year before he opened fire, with his dad branding it the ‘greatest day ever’ DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
The 14-year-old is accused of killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday.
His father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged in relation to the killings after admitting to authorities that he bought the weapon used in the attack for his son.
Now DailyMail.com can reveal that Colt had been on hunting trips with his father for at least 18 months before the teen opened fire in the school hallways.
Shocking footage shows Colt posing with a 450 Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle he used to kill a deer, with his father later telling the local authorities it was ‘just the greatest day ever’.
New footage shows suspected school shooter Colt Gray with blood on his face and posing with a deadly AR-15 rifle a year before he opened fire, with his dad branding it the ‘greatest day ever’ DailyMail.com can reveal
The 14-year-old is accused of killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday
Colin bragged that his son was a ‘hell of a shot’ after he killed the deer on January 8, 2023, and appeared thrilled to be teaching him to hunt.
The teenager can be seen with blood on his cheeks, wearing hunting gear in a wooded area of Georgia, smiling at the camera while clutching the weapon.
His father then insists he poses with the rifle and the deer, telling the camera: ‘I’ll follow you sir. Holy crap look at that brother.
‘Go ahead and lay your rifle down on it, barrel up so you don’t get mud in the barrel, gun down like we had for the picture.
‘Remember it’s still loaded. Beautiful, lean down there and hold that head up let me see what you got this morning.
‘On your first ever deer hunt big old giant three pointer amazing look at that son what a hell of a shot. Yes sir.’
Colin even bragged to authorities about the trip during an interview with the pair after the FBI received a tip which accusing the then 13-year-old of posting threats to open fire at a school in May 2023.
He told officers that they ‘do a lot of deer hunting’, before proudly saying: ‘He shot his first deer this year’.
‘I’m trying to teach him about firearms and safety,’ the father-of-three added. ‘And how to do it all and get him in interested in the outdoors.
‘The picture on my phone you see him with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer. It was just the greatest day ever.’
Colt’s father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged in relation to the killings after admitting to authorities that he bought the weapon used in the attack for his son. The pair had been on hunting trips with his father for at least 18 months before the teen opened fire in the school hallways.
Shocking footage shows Colt posing with a 450 Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle he used to kill a deer, with his father later telling the FBI it was ‘just the greatest day ever’
The father-of-three also admitted that they talk about school shootings a lot during the interview, claiming it was something that concerned him.
‘You just never really know,’ he told investigators. ‘I don’t want anything to happen to him’.
He told cops his son wasn’t a loner, and was being picked on at school, with his peers saying he was gay, according to a report from Jefferson County Sherriff’s Department.
The report also details that Colt told his father ‘I’m a good boy Daddy, I would never do it’ and said, ‘I don’t want to be caught up in any of that’.
His father said it was ‘very difficult’ for him to go to school and ‘not get picked on’, and that he had been trying to get him onto a school team.
‘It went from one thing to another,’ Colin said. ‘He was talking to the couple of friends he had, and it was like “oh look Colt’s gay, he’s dating that guy”.
‘Just ridiculed him day after day after day.’
Colin even bragged to authorities about the trip when they interviewed the pair in relation to an FBI tip which accused the then 13-year-old was posting threats to open fire at a school in May 2023. He told officers that they ‘do a lot of deer hunting’, before proudly saying: ‘He shot his first deer this year’
‘I’m trying to teach him about firearms and safety,’ the father-of-three added. ‘And how to do it all and get him in interested in the outdoors. ‘The picture on my phone you see him with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer. It was just the greatest day ever.’
The teenager reportedly believed that he would ‘make a great detective’, because of his cyber skills.
Colt was introduced to weapons by his father, who claims he took him hunting out of fear he could be caught up in a school shooting and unable to defend himself.
‘I introduced him to bow hunting, then it was a pellet gun, then it was a 22,’ he said.
‘Gun safety was in all of this because I worry about him and school, and you never know what would ever happen.’
Conflicting evidence on the post’s origin left investigators unable to arrest anyone, the report said.
His father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged in relation to the killings after admitting to authorities that he bought the weapon used in the attack for his son
Gray was arrested on Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, minutes after authorities say he opened fire on students and teachers, killing four. Colt reportedly told police ‘I did it’ when read his Miranda rights
Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the report from May 2023 and found nothing that would have justified bringing charges at the time.
‘We did not drop the ball at all on this,’ Mangum told The Associated Press in an interview. ‘We did all we could do with what we had at the time.’
The teen was interviewed after the sheriff received a tip from the FBI that Gray ‘had possibly threatened to shoot up a middle school tomorrow.’
He reportedly made the threat on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers, according to the sheriff’s office incident report.
The FBI’s tip pointed to a Discord account associated with an email address linked to Colt Gray, the report said.
The father-of-three also admitted that they talk about school shootings a lot during the interview, claiming it was something that concerned him (Pictured: home of Colin and Colt Gray)
The account had a username written in Russian, and the translation of the letters spelled out the name Lanza, referencing Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy.
Gray denied he was the author of the threats, telling police he’d shut down his Discord after being repeatedly hacked. He expressed concerns that someone would make those accusations about him.
‘He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,’ Colin told authorities.
The boy reportedly was obsessed with other infamous school shooters such as Parkland, Florida killer Nikolas Cruz.
Teacher Richard Aspinwall was named as one of the four victims of the shooting. Christina Irimie was also identified as a victim
Mason Schermerhorn, 14, an autistic student at Apalachee High School, was the first victim to be identified. Christian Angulo, 14, also lost his life in the senseless shooting
Investigators wrote that no arrests were made because of ‘inconsistent information’ on the Discord account, which had profile information in Russian and a digital evidence trail indicating it had been accessed in different Georgia cities as well as Buffalo, New York.
Authorities closed the case being unable to substantiate that either Gray was connected to the Discord account, and did not find grounds to seek the needed court order to confiscate the family’s guns.
Father and son both appeared at Barrow County Superior Court on Friday, in shackles and handcuffed at the front of their body.
Colt reportedly told police ‘I did it’ when read his Miranda rights after his arrest on Wednesday.
The teen, dressed in a green t-shirt and grey sweatpants, kept his head down, with his hair covering his face, and spoke softly only to Judge Currie Mingledorff, replying ‘yes sir’ when asked to confirm his name.
Judge Mingledorff brought Gray back in to correct a statement he made, telling him: ‘I wanted to make it clear to you that the penalty does not include death. It includes life without the possibility of parole or with the possibility of parole.’
A 2005 Supreme Court decision forbids the execution of offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.
Meanwhile his father, Colin, cried as he appeared shortly after his son in the same courtroom, rocking back and forth.
Colin Gray shuffled in wearing a prison-issued striped shirt and tracksuit, in shackles like his son. He stated his name in a croaky voice, confirming his age, and that he was able to read and write.
Judge Mingledorff advised the elder Gray that he could face up to 30 years in prison for each felony murder count, 10 years for each involuntary manslaughter charges and cruelty to children – the maximum totaling 180 years.