Monday, December 23, 2024

Troubling history of Georgia school shooting suspect’s family REVEALED as his father is arrested and charged with second-degree murder

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The mother of 14-year-old Georgia school shooter Colt Gray has a lengthy rap sheet including domestic violence, drug use and fraud that led to her being sentenced to jail time last December. 

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.

His father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, is accused of buying his 14-year-old son Colt the AR-15-style rifle the boy used and was arrested Thursday on several counts of second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

Public records show that Gray’s mother, Marcee Gray, has a criminal record dating back to 2007 and spent time in jail as recently as this past April and was banned from contacting father Colin without a third party intermediary.

Marcee, 43, has a record across four Georgia counties and includes drug use, domestic violence and property damage, as well as civil claims of fraud. 

Marcee Gray, the mother of 14-year-old Georgia school shooter Colt Gray, has a lengthy rap sheet involving domestic violence, drug use and fraud that led to her being sentenced to jail time as last December 

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

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

She was arrested November 6, 2023, on allegations of possession of meth, fentanyl and muscle relaxants but was never charged on the drugs, only the vehicle fraud.

Last December, Gray pled guilty to counts of using a license plate to conceal identity, damage to property and trespassing/family violence, as she used a tag for a Nissan Kick to conceal the identity of her Nissan Rogue. 

Gray – listed on her LinkedIn page as a Senior Quality Engineer at a local factory – was eligible under a Georgia law that allows certain defendants to plead guilty without being convicted, according to AJC

On December 21, she was sentenced to five years in jail and banned from having any contact with Colt’s father Colin, as well as paying out $1,500 to an Atlanta construction company in restitution. 

Gray only had to spend 46 days in confinement before getting the rest on probation, while also having to take part in a family violence intervention program and not use drugs or alcohol. 

On April 12, she was charged in connection with a November 4 aggravated battery against a 73-year-old woman, as well as theft, false imprisonment, criminal trespass and failure to appear when she threw the woman against a wall. 

She also taped the elderly woman’s hands and feet to keep her from leaving and broke a bathroom mirror in the woman’s home.

Gray’s other charges include misdemeanor traffic offenses in 2019, a speeding charge in 2014 and traffic offenses in 2007.

His father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, is accused of buying his 14-year-old son Colt the AR-15-style rifle the boy used and was arrested Thursday on several counts of second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children

His father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, is accused of buying his 14-year-old son Colt the AR-15-style rifle the boy used and was arrested Thursday on several counts of second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children

Marcee, 43, has a record across four Georgia counties and includes drug use, domestic violence and property damage, as well as civil claims of fraud

Marcee, 43, has a record across four Georgia counties and includes drug use, domestic violence and property damage, as well as civil claims of fraud

The most she was ever punished was 12 months of probation and 40 hours community service.

She also has been accused of civil fraud by a local Chevrolet dealership, saying she bought a 2018 Suburban with a $10,000 check with her and Colin’s names on is that was ‘dishonored due to lack of funds’.

Gray was ordered to pay over $19,000 in restitution and attorney fees, with records showing that Colin’s paychecks were being garnished to help pay down the debt. 

The family home was raided on Wednesday afternoon, with FBI investigators seizing firearms and evidence.  

Neighbors saw Colin return to the family home on Wednesday evening, though it is unclear if he handed himself into authorities. 

A neighbor told DailyMail.com that they were ‘terrified’ following the new charges, adding that the family had ‘kept themselves to themselves’ and not integrated with the community in their two years at the property.

Lauren Vickers, a neighbor, told the New York Post that the family had been trouble ever since moving into the neighborhood in 2022 and the kids were clearly not being taken care of.

‘There were nights where the mom would lock him and his sister out the house. And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like ‘Mom! mom! mom!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating,’ she said. 

On December 21, she was sentenced to five years in jail and banned from having any contact with Colt's father Colin, as well as paying out $1,500 to an Atlanta construction company in restitution

On December 21, she was sentenced to five years in jail and banned from having any contact with Colt’s father Colin, as well as paying out $1,500 to an Atlanta construction company in restitution

Gray has been charged with four felony counts of murder, and will be tried as an adult, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed

Gray has been charged with four felony counts of murder, and will be tried as an adult, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed

She added that Marcee was often clearly intoxicated, even when driving her children – shooter Colt was described as ‘quiet’ – to school. 

‘I would find her in the driveway, passed out, with the car running and blaring music early in the morning,’ Vickers added.

A former landlord for the Grays described Marcee as a ‘f***-up’ while Colt was ‘trying his best’.

The arrest came after sources claimed that the father-of-three bought his 14-year-old son the assault rifle used in the shooting as a Christmas gift in 2023. 

This was just months after the teenager and his father were interviewed by local law enforcement in connection with online threats about carrying out a school shooting made on the gaming social-media platform Discord, according to investigators.

The teen was interviewed after the sheriff received a tip from the FBI that Gray, then 13, ‘had possibly threatened to shoot up a middle school tomorrow.’ The threat was made 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. But the boy said ‘he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,’ according to the investigator’s report.

The interview transcript quotes the teen as saying: ‘I promise I would never say something where …’ with the rest of that denial listed as inaudible.

Mason Schermerhorn

Christian Angulo

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

Richard Aspinwall

Christina Irimie

Teacher Richard Aspinwall was named as one of the four victims of the shooting. Christina Irimie was also identified as a victim

The investigator 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.

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 Discord account had a user name 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, officers said.

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,’ the father, Colin Gray, said according to a transcript obtained from the sheriff’s office. 

Colin reportedly assured officers that he would be ‘mad as hell’ if he learned the allegations about his son making threats were true, and that ‘all the guns [would] go away.’

Online, his aunt vowed ‘full throttle blood’ as she claimed he’d been subjected to ‘abuse’ his entire life. Those comments were deleted last night after a barrage of backlash. 

Colin Gray (pictured left), 54, has been taken into custody by local authorities and charged with two counts of murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children

Colin Gray (pictured left), 54, has been taken into custody by local authorities and charged with two counts of murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children

Officials confirmed in a press conference that the charges stem from Colin ‘knowingly allowing’ his son to have access to the firearm used in the shooting

Officials confirmed in a press conference that the charges stem from Colin ‘knowingly allowing’ his son to have access to the firearm used in the shooting

The sheriff’s investigators closed the case after 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, according to police reports released by the sheriff’s office on Thursday.

The boy reportedly had an obsession with other infamous school shooters such as Parkland, Florida killer Nikolas Cruz.

Two students and two teachers were dead inside the school building by the time he laid down his AR-style weapon.

Students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, and teachers Richard Aspenwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, were named as the deceased. 

When police searched the teen’s Georgia home following the bloodbath, they reportedly found clues the teenager was ‘obsessed’ with mass shootings – specifically the Parkland massacre in 2018, which left 17 people dead. 

Gray was known to the FBI after several tips came in about him last year.  

The boy remains in juvenile custody in Georgia, awaiting his first court appearance, which is scheduled for Friday morning. He will be charged as an adult, sheriffs said. 

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Gray immediately surrendered when confronted by school resource officers at the scene.

Colin Gray was taken into custody by local authorities at 6:11pm Thursday and charged with two felony counts of murder, four felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight felony counts of cruelty to children.

Officials confirmed in a press conference that the charges stem from Colin ‘knowingly allowing’ his son to have access to the firearm used in the shooting. 

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