Father of teen suspect in deadly U.S. school shooting arrested, facing multiple charges
CBC
The father of the teenager accused of killing four people and wounding nine in a Georgia high school shooting has been arrested on charges that include second-degree murder, authorities said Thursday.
Colin Gray, 54, the father of Colt Gray, 14, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in a social media post.
"These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon," GBI director Chris Hosey said at an evening news conference. "His charges are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon."
In Georgia, second-degree murder is punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison, while malice murder and felony murder carry a minimum sentence of life imprisonment.
Authorities have charged the teenager as an adult with murder in the shootings Wednesday at Apalachee High School outside Atlanta. Arrest warrants obtained by the Associated Press accuse him of using a semi-automatic assault-style rifle in the attack, which killed two students and two teachers and wounded nine other people.
The victims have been identified as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and instructors Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.
Authorities said Thursday evening the wounded are all expected to make a full recovery.
The teen denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him last year about a menacing post on social media, according to a sheriff's report obtained Thursday.
More than a year ago, tips about online posts threatening a school shooting led Georgia police to interview a 13-year-old boy, but investigators didn't have enough evidence for an arrest.
The teenager was interviewed in May 2023 by a sheriff's investigator from neighbouring Jackson County who received a tip from the FBI that the boy "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 Jackson County sheriff's report obtained by The Associated Press.
The sheriff's office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting guns in the house but the teen did not have unsupervised access to them.
The teen also denied making any online threats. The sheriff's office alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the teen, but there was no probable cause for arrest or additional action, the FBI said.
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.
