Father of suspect in Georgia school massacre arrested

The father of a 14-year-old boy accused of killing four people at a high school in the US state of Georgia has been arrested.

Colin Gray, 54, faces four counts of manslaughter, two counts of first-degree murder and eight counts of child abuse, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said.

GBI Director Chris Hosey said Thursday evening that the charges were directly related to his son's actions and “permission to possess a weapon.”

The son, Colt Gray, is accused of killing two teachers and two students in Wednesday's shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, near Atlanta.

He is due to appear in court on Friday. As an adult, he is charged with four counts of murder.

Authorities are investigating whether Colin Gray purchased the AR weapon in December 2023 as a gift for his son, law enforcement sources told CBS News, the BBC's U.S. partner.

In May 2023, the FBI alerted local police to online threats regarding a school shooting that were linked to an email address associated with the suspect.

A deputy sheriff went to question the boy, who was 13 at the time.

His father told police he had weapons in the house, but his son did not have unsupervised access to them, the FBI said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to officials, the threats were made via Discord, a social media platform popular among video gamers, and included images of weapons.

The account's profile name was in Russian and translated into the last name of the attacker who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.

A police report was released on Thursday describing the interrogation of the boy and his father last year.

In the report, an officer described the boy as “reserved” and “quiet” and said he “assured him that he had never threatened to shoot in a school.”

They said he claimed to have deleted his Discord account because it had been repeatedly hacked.

Colin Gray also told police that his son was bullied at school and was struggling with his parents' separation.

Police records show that the boy's mother and father were going through a divorce and he lived with his father during the separation.

The teenager often went hunting with his father. The father told police that he had photographed his son with deer blood on his cheeks.

The boy's maternal grandfather told the New York Times that he blamed the tumultuous family life following Gray and his daughter's separation in part.

“I understand that my grandson has done something terrible – there is no doubt about that – and he will pay for it,” Charlie Polhamus told the newspaper.

“My grandson did what he did because of the environment he lived in,” he added.

During Thursday's press conference, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said all nine injured people are expected to make a full recovery.

Several victims have already left the hospital, he said.

Students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo (both 14) as well as teachers Richard Aspinwall (39) and Christina Irimie (53) were killed in the attack.

Witnesses said the suspect left an algebra class Wednesday morning but later returned and attempted to re-enter the classroom.

Some students tried to open the locked door, but apparently saw the weapon and backed away.

Witnesses said they then heard a volley of 10 to 15 shots. Two school police officers immediately confronted the boy and he immediately surrendered.

These are not the first charges brought against the parents of a suspect in a school shooting.

In April, the parents of a Michigan teenager were convicted for their role in the attack, which killed four students with a gun they had bought for him just days before the shooting.

James and Jennifer Crumbley were both found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison each.

It was widely reported that this case was the first in which the parents of a child who committed mass murder were held criminally responsible.