WINDER, Ga. − Colin Gray, the father of suspected Georgia school shooter Colt Gray, has been arrested in connection with the attack that killed four people at Apalachee High School, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday evening.
The elder Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said. In addition to the four fatalities Wednesday at the Winder school, nine people – eight students and one teacher – were injured in the assault.
"These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to posses a weapon,'' said GBI Director Chris Hosey.
Law enforcement agents had visited the Gray household last year after getting tipped off about online threats to commit a school shooting. At the time, Colin Gray told sheriff's deputies he owned hunting rifles but they were not accessible to Colt Gray, who was 13 then.
Authorities were working Thursday to solve the tragic mystery of why and how a 14-year-old boy previously linked to violent threats opened fire in his high school, killing two teachers and two students and plunging this rural town into anguish and mourning.
Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, were fatally shot Wednesday at Apalachee High School. Eight other students and one teacher were wounded.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told reporters late Thursday all nine people were expected to make a full recovery. He added some had been discharged from the hospital while several were still being treated.
Smith said the gunman, armed with an "an AR-platform style weapon," began shooting around 10:20 a.m. Smith said the shooter, identified as Colt Gray, was quickly confronted by deputies assigned to the school and immediately surrendered. Gray faces four counts of felony murder and "additional charges are expected,'' the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said .
Colt Gray was speaking with investigators, who were trying to determine what motivated the rampage Smith described as "pure evil." The FBI said tips about online threats made last year involving then-13-year-old Gray were forwarded to authorities in neighboring Jackson County, but it was determined there was insufficient evidence to make an arrest.
Investigators have found evidence indicating Gray was interested in previous school shootings, especially the 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida, the New York Times and CNN reported Thursday, citing unnamed law enforcement officials.
Katherine Hooper has lived a few minutes away from the school since it was built. Despite no longer having school-age children, she donates books, paper and pens to the school every year. And she was stunned at the news that a recurring national nightmare had come to her small Georgia town.
"I cried like a baby," Hooper said Thursday. "Everyone says, 'That never happens in my neighborhood,' but we said it and we actually meant it."
How the shooting unfolded: Complete timeline of events
Developments:
∎ Gray was brought to the Regional Youth Detention Center in Gainesville overnight, Glenn Allen, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, told USA TODAY. Gray, who will appear before a judge virtually at 8:30 a.m. Friday, will be charged and tried as an adult, said Hosey, director of the GBI.
∎ Parents of school-age children in Gwinnett County, which is adjacent to Barrow County, were sent an e-mail saying police presence around schools has been increased.
∎ The shooting was the first planned attack at a school this fall term, said David Riedman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database.
Mass killing database: See trends and details of every US event since 2006
'Great' dad. 'Caring' brother: Families mourn Georgia high school shooting victims.
President Joe Biden said Thursday he and his wife, Jill, are mourning the students and teachers who were killed, and he pushed for measures to prevent similar tragedies.
Biden said he is a gun owner who believes strongly in the Second Amendment, but more action is required from lawmakers than merely offering condolences. "Some of my Republican friends in Congress just finally have to say enough is enough, we have to do something," Biden said.
Speaking at an event in Westby, Wisconsin, he called for an assault weapons ban, a ban on high-capacity magazines, a safe-storage law, universal background checks and an end to immunity for firearm manufacturers.
"I realize I'm in a rural area like the rural parts of my state, where guns − we all have them − and it's not popular to talk about it, but the truth is, there's a difference between rational and irrational," said Biden, who represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate for 36 years.
"As a nation, we cannot continue to accept the carnage of gun violence," he said.
− Francesca Chambers
Classmate Lyela Sayarath told the Associated Press the teen turned the gun on students in a hallway at the school when classmates refused to open the door for him to return to his algebra classroom. Sayarath, who described Gray as a quiet student who recently transferred and was frequently absent from school, said she was watching him through a window in the door.
She said some students went to open the locked door, but then backed away. “I’m guessing they saw something,” Sayarath said. Then she heard the shots "about 10 or 15 of them at once, back-to-back.”
Marques Coleman, 14, told CBS he saw the attacker holding a "big gun" moments before shots rang out. "I got up, I started running, he started shooting like, like 10 times," Coleman said. "My teacher started barricading the door with desks."
Kyson Stancion told ABC News he was in class when he heard gunshots and heard police scream to kids in the hallway that "there's a shooting going on, get down, get back in the classroom."
"Everybody was crying," he said. "My teacher tried to keep everybody safe."
FBI received tips about online threats: Tips involved suspected Georgia school shooter
The FBI received tips about online threats last year involving then-13-year-old Gray, the bureau's Atlanta office said Wednesday. In May of 2023, the FBI's National Threat Operations Center obtained anonymous tips about threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location, federal agents said in a social media post . The threats, which contained images of guns, were traced to Jackson County, Georgia, and the FBI notified the Jackson County Sheriff's office.
Authorities interviewed Gray and his father, who said he had hunting rifles in the house but his son did not have unsupervised access to them. Colt Gray also denied making the online threats. There was no probable cause at the time for an arrest or additional law enforcement action, the post said. Jackson County passed on information to local schools, but Gray was a student at Apalachee High School in neighboring Barrow County when the shooting took place. Read more here .
Police reports released by the sheriff's office Thursday said investigators closed the case and did not find reasons to pursue a court order to confiscate the father's rifles.
"This case was worked, and at the time the boy was 13, and it wasn't enough to substantiate," Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum told Reuters. "If we get a judge's order or we charge somebody, we take firearms for safekeeping."
Colt Gray, 14, identified as suspect: What we know about Apalachee High School shooting suspect
Friends of Angulo described him as a free spirit with a "chill" attitude. His older sister, Lisette, remembered Angulo as "very sweet and so caring," according to a GoFundMe page for his funeral services.
"He was so loved by many. His loss was so sudden and unexpected," Lisette Angulo wrote. "We are truly heartbroken."
Those who knew Schermerhorn described him as a lighthearted teenager who spent time with his family, reading, telling jokes, playing video games and visiting Walt Disney World, The New York Times reported.
Aspinwall, in addition to teaching math, was the school football team's defensive coordinator. Head coach Mike Hancock described him as a "great dad, man, and a great father."
"He loved his two girls and he loved his wife," Hancock said of Aspinwall. "He did happen to love the game of football and he was well respected around this area."
Students described Irimie as patient and caring. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , citing her pastor and friends, wrote that Irimie loved her Romanian heritage and was dedicated to her roots. Pastor Nicolae Clempus told the paper he met Irimie shortly after moving to the U.S. in 2001. Irimie, he said, had immigrated from Romania a few years earlier, was active in the expat community and made him feel welcome.
More than 20 schools across the nation have been impacted by gun violence since the start of 2024. The school shooting at Apalachee High School was the 23rd time this year a school shooting has resulted in injuries or deaths, according to data compiled by Education Week , a news organization that covers K-12 education.
Education Week is just one of multiple organizations that compiles data about gun violence in schools, but they only track incidents that fulfill a certain criteria. The 22 school shootings prior to Wednesday's in Georgia have resulted in seven deaths and 29 injuries, according to Education Week's tally.
There have been more than 200 school shootings since Education Week began to track them in 2018.
− Amaris Encinas
Contributing: Thao Nguyen and Ryne Dennis , USA TODAY; Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Pure evil': Anguish and mourning in Georgia community where teen gunman fatally shot 4
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