The 14-year-old boy accused of killing four people inside of his Georgia high school last month allegedly smuggled a rifle into the school by hiding it inside of a poster board, a court heard Wednesday among many disturbing new details about the case.
The teen wrapped the AR-15-style rifle in a poster and carried it into Apalachee High School in his backpack on Sept. 4, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations testified during a court hearing for the student’s father, Colin Gray. The father and son were indicted by a grand jury Thursday on dozens of counts related to the attack.
“The rifle was protruding from his bookbag” but “it was not immediately obvious” to agents what it was, GBI Special Agent Lucas Beyer said Wednesday after reviewing security footage from the school and the teen’s school bus. “At a quick glance, it appeared that [he] was possibly transporting a school project.”
The 14-year-old Apalachee High School shooting suspects sits in the Barrow County Courthouse in Winder, Georgia.
Beyer said the teen carried the rifle into two of his morning classes without anyone’s apparent notice and requested a leave of absence during his second-period class. While outside his classroom with the gun, he allegedly opened fire in the school’s halls and a neighboring classroom.
The shooting appeared to have been intricately plotted out, based on a notebook the teen had left on his classroom desk, Beyer said. According to the special agent, the notebook included a layout of classrooms with notes on how many people its author thought he could kill or injure.
“I’m thinking 3 to 4 people killed. Injured? 4 to 5,” Beyer read from the notebook.
The boy’s family told investigators that they knew he had mental health issues, a fixation with past shootings and had increasingly become violent, but they struggled to find him help, testified GBI Special Agent Kelse Ward.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) light candles during a vigil for the four shooting victims at Apalachee High School.
The teen’s mother and father, who are divorced and live separately, received ominous text messages from their son in the minutes before the attack, with the boy telling his father 20 minutes before: “I’m sorry, it’s not your fault … you’re not to blame for any of it,” said Ward.
The teen similarly texted his mother an “I’m sorry,” prompting her to immediately call his school and insist that her son be located, Ward said.
“She wanted the school to put hands on him immediately and determine where he was inside the building,” she said.
The teen’s father, Colin Gray, didn’t call his son’s school. He went to the home the two of them shared and watched the news about the shooting on TV before checking the location of his son’s rifle, which he confirmed was missing, Ward said.
Colin Gray had purchased the firearm for his son as a Christmas gift, testified Jason Smith, an investigator with the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office.
Colin Gray, the father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect, appears in court on Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Georgia.
In a later search of the teen’s home, investigators found multiple firearms and loose ammunition. A game room housed “a shrine” of news articles and photos mounted to a wall related to past mass shootings. The images included pictures of convicted Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz, said Ward.
Investigators said that in an interview with Colin Gray, he told them his son had once requested a black shooter’s mask, and that when he asked his son why he needed it, the teen said that it was to “finish his school shooter outfit,” according to Ward.
As previously reported, the teen and his father had been interviewed by the FBI last year over online messages that allegedly threatened a school shooting. The teen denied making the threats and was not charged, authorities said.
In footage from that investigation , Colin Gray told authorities visiting his home that he would “be mad as hell” and take away his son’s firearms if his son had indeed made the threats.
Flags are lowered at half-staff in front of Apalachee High School on Sept. 5 after two students and two teachers were shot dead.
“I don’t know anything about him saying [expletive] like that. And I’m going to be mad as hell if he did. And then all the guns will go away,” he said.
Prosecutors have said Colin Gray is criminally responsible for the shooting victims’ deaths because he provided a firearm to his son while knowing that he was a threat to himself and others. He was indicted Thursday on 29 counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.
His teenage son was indicted on 55 counts. These include four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, plus aggravated assault and cruelty to children, according to The Associated Press . He is being charged as an adult and faces life in prison without parole, an approach to criminal cases involving minors that faces widespread criticism .
The father and son are scheduled to appear for an arraignment on Nov. 21, which is when they will formally enter their pleas.
Local News
