Georgia police charge teenage shooter, father with murder

The 14-year-old suspect in Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School appeared in Barrow County Superior Court Friday after authorities charged him with four counts of murder. Colt Gray is accused of killing two of his fellow students, two teachers, and injuring nine others. He could face additional charges and will be tried as an adult, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

The GBI identified the deceased victims as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39, and math teacher Cristina Irimie, 53. 

As of Thursday evening, all nine of the wounded victims were expected to make a full recovery, according to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith. Smith said some of the victims remained hospitalized, but all were expected to be released soon. Of the nine injured victims, two were teachers and the rest were students, according to Smith. Smith went on to praise the teachers, characterizing them as heroes who stood in the gap between students and evil.

Has the shooter been investigated before? In May 2023, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office interviewed the shooter and his father in connection with school shooting threats posted online. The posts were first reported to the FBI. The suspect denied making the threats and his father said that he did not have unsupervised access to guns that were kept in the home.

What about his parents? Officials on Thursday arrested Colin Gray, the father of the accused shooter. Authorities charged Gray with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of second-degree cruelty to children, according to the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office. Gray reportedly allowed his son to have a gun, GBI Director Chris Hosey said during a Thursday press conference, and the charges filed against him are directly connected to the shooting. Georgia law allows parents or caretakers to be charged with second-degree cruelty to children if authorities can prove they were criminally negligent by failing to keep a gun out of the reach of children.

Is there precedent for this type of charge? A Michigan jury in February found Jennifer Crumbley guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter and another jury in March found her husband, James Crumbley, guilty of the same charges. The two were arrested after their son in 2021 shot and killed four classmates at school. It was the first time in U.S. history that parents had been convicted in connection with a mass shooting committed by their child.

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher’s initial report in The Sift about the shooting in Georgia.