Georgia School Shooting Update: Colt Gray Investigation Reveals New Details

New details are emerging from a previous police investigation into Colt Gray, the 14-year-old charged in the shooting deaths of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday.
Colt has been charged with four counts of felony murder and is being held in the Gainesville Region Youth Detention Center. His father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, was charged in connection to the mass shooting 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 (GBI).
In Wednesday’s shooting, nine other victims, including seven who were shot and who were hospitalized, are expected to recover. On Friday, the Grays appeared for the first time in court where their attorneys declined to immediately seek bail.
The charges against Colin are based in part on a warning that police gave last year when Colt allegedly made threats on Discord, a well-liked social media platform among video game enthusiasts, and Colin’s alleged purchase of the semiautomatic AR 15-style rifle used in the school shooting. Arrest warrants say the elder Gray bought the rifle, which was reportedly given as a Christmas present, knowing his son “was a threat to himself and others.”
According to new information released Saturday by the Associated Press, Colin spoke with a Georgia sheriff’s investigator in May 2023 asking whether an online threat to commit a school shooting had been posted by his son.
“I don’t know anything about him saying (expletive) like that,” Colin told Jackson County sheriff’s investigator Daniel Miller, according to a transcript of their interview obtained by the AP. “I’m going to be mad as hell if he did, and then all the guns will go away.”
Miller also interviewed Colt, then 13, who was described as quiet, calm and reserved. He denied making threats and said that he’d stopped using Discord where the school threat was posted. According to the AP, he later told his father his account had been hacked.
“The only thing I have is TikTok, but I just go on there and watch videos,” the teen said.
When reached Saturday by Newsweek via email, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment for this story.
The investigation into Colt by Jackson County officials ended last year. The department concluded that there was a lack of definitive evidence associating him with a threat displayed on Discord.
The documents sourced from the AP probe also offer insight into the teen’s struggle amidst his parents’ divorce and his experience at the middle school he attended, where, as stated by his father, he was often subjected to derision.
“He gets flustered and under pressure. He doesn’t really think straight,” Colin told the investigator on May 21, 2023, recalling a discussion he’d had with Colt’s principal.
According to the AP, Colin and Colt had a common interest in shooting and hunting. Colin tried to limit Colt’s video gaming on Xbox and encourage more outdoor activities.
Colin said he felt immense pride when Colt killed his first deer months ago, sharing a photo of this event with an investigator. Colin described the day of Colt’s first hunting kill as the “greatest day ever.”
While there was no evidence of Colin owning an assault-style rifle in the 2023 investigation report, he confirmed that his son did have access to firearms. Despite providing access, Colin stated the guns were not kept loaded and safety was prioritized when instructing Colt on shooting. Colin emphasized that his son understood the severity of gun handling, knowing both when and where not to use them.
The Gray family also experienced a significant shift in the summer of 2022 due to an eviction. On July 25 of that year, a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the suburban cul-de-sac rental home where Colin, his wife, Colt, and two younger siblings resided as their belongings were being amassed outside by a moving crew.
The Jackson County deputy reported that the moving team discovered firearms and hunting bows within the main bedroom’s closet. Rather than leaving these items with the family’s other belongings outside, these were handed over to the deputy for safe storage.
Receipt forms for the items were left by the deputy on the front door, enabling Colin to eventually retrieve the weapons from the sheriff’s office. The report doesn’t specify the cause of the eviction, however, Colin insisted in a 2023 conversation with the investigator that he had kept up with rent payments.
Following the eviction, Colin said that his wife, Marcee Gray, left him and took the two younger siblings with her. Colin said Colt “struggled at first with the separation and all.”
“I’m the sole provider, doing [construction] high rises downtown,” he told the investigator. Two days later, in a follow-up interview with Colin while he was at work, he said by phone: “I’m hanging off the top of a building….I’ve got a big crane lift going, so it’s kind of noisy up here.”
Colt had just completed seventh grade when Miller interviewed the father and son. Colin said his son faced ridicule “day after day” at school.
“I don’t want him to fight anybody, but they just keep like pinching him and touching him,” Colin said. “Words are one thing, but you start touching him and that’s a whole different deal. And it’s just escalated to the point where like his finals were last week and that was the last thing on his mind.”
A year before they would both end up charged in the school shooting, Colin insisted to the sheriff’s investigator that his son wasn’t the type to threaten violence.
“He’s not a loner, Officer Miller. Don’t get that,” the father said. “He just wants to go to school, do his own thing and he doesn’t want any trouble.”
Update: 09/07/2024, 4:22 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with more information.