Teenager accused of murdering four people to appear in court – Times News Online

Published on 06 September 2024 14:03

WINDER, Ga. – The 14-year-old accused of shooting four people at his Georgia high school was scheduled to appear in court for the first time Friday, a day after his father was also arrested for allowing his son to possess a gun.

According to arrest warrants obtained by the Associated Press, Colt Gray is accused of using a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, near Atlanta. Nine people were injured in the attack on Wednesday. Authorities have not given a motive or explained how Gray got the weapon or brought it to the school.

The teen's father, Colin Gray, 54, was charged Thursday in connection with the shooting, including manslaughter and first-degree murder, according to Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“His charges are directly related to his son's actions and permission to possess a weapon,” Hosey said. Colin Gray's first court date has not yet been set.

It is the latest example of prosecutors blaming parents for their children's actions in school shootings. In April, Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first to be convicted in a U.S. school massacre, sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to secure a firearm at home and reacting indifferently to signs of their son's deteriorating mental health before he killed four students in 2021.

Colt Gray was charged as an adult with quadruple murder of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo (both 14), Richard Aspinwall (39) and Cristina Irimie (53).

A neighbor remembered Schermerhorn as an inquisitive boy. Aspinwall and Irimie were both math teachers, and Aspinwall also helped coach the school's soccer team. Irimie, who immigrated from Romania, volunteered at a local church where she taught dance classes.

Gray will appear for the hearing at the Barrow County Courthouse via video from a juvenile detention center.

A sheriff's report obtained Thursday shows the teenager denied threatening to carry out a school shooting last year when authorities questioned him about a threatening social media post.

Due to conflicting evidence about the origin of the post, investigators were unable to arrest anyone, the report said. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the May 2023 report and found nothing that would have warranted charges at the time.

The attack was the latest of dozens of school shootings in the United States in recent years, including particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have sparked heated debates about gun control, but there have been few changes to national gun laws.

According to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today in collaboration with Northeastern University, it was the 30th mass murder in the United States this year. At least 127 people died in these killings, which are defined as events in which four or more people die within 24 hours, not including the killer – the same definition used by the FBI.

This booking photo provided by the Barrow County, Georgia Sheriff's Office shows 14-year-old Colt Gray, who has been charged as an adult with murder in the Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. BARROW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE via AP

Students and parents leave the campus of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. AP PHOTO/MIKE STEWART