Father of Georgia school shooting suspect charged in court alongside son

The 14-year-old accused of killing two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia appeared in court Friday before Judge Currie M. Mingledorff II.

The victims of the Wednesday shooting were 14-year-olds Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie.

The teenager, identified as Colt Gray, faces four charges of felony murder and will be tried as an adult. He made his first appearance Friday.

His father, Colin Gray, appeared alongside him Friday in connection with the case. The father faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder.

Per The Associated Press , in a news conference, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said the father’s charges are “directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon.”

Gray, who also faces charges of cruelty to children, could be sentenced to up to 180 years in prison if convicted. His arrest reflects a growing trend of parents being held accountable for their children’s involvement in school shootings.

According to KSL.com , Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley, who were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for their son killing four students in 2021, were the first example of this practice. Their charges involved not securing a firearm at home and acting indifferently to their son’s deteriorating mental health.

Questions remain about how Wednesday’s tragedy was allowed to occur, especially due to the police’s knowledge of the accused teenager’s interest in mass shootings. A year earlier, he had been questioned by police due to reports received by the FBI that he made online threats to shoot up a school.

However, per a statement by FBI Atlanta, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office determined there was “no probable cause for arrest” at the time.

The accused denied the accusations when questioned, and the father told officers that while there were hunting guns in the house, his son did not have unsupervised access to them.

The teenager’s maternal grandfather, Charlie Polhamus, partially blamed the father for the tragedy, citing the teenager’s troubled upbringing, whose parents are divorced.

“My grandson did what he did because of the environment that he lived in,” Polhamus said, per The New York Times .

In court, Mingledorff informed the 14-year-old that he will not face the death penalty due to his age, but he could spend life in prison.

Preliminary hearings for both father and son are set for Dec. 4.