Authorities have arrested the father of Georgia school shooter Colt Gray after he admitted to gifting his son an AR-15 for Christmas. Gray used the firearm in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia history. Four people died and multiple people suffered injuries.
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Authorities have charged Gray's father, Colin, with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children. According to TMZ, Colin admitted to giving his son the gun as a Christmas present. This was seven months after local authorities and FBI investigated the teen for threats made against the school.
Authorities visited the Gray home in May 2023. At the time, Colt threatened online to go on a shooting spree at his middle school. During the investigation, Colin claimed that his son had some issues at school. But he said they got better when he changed schools.
Colt Gray Denied Making Threats
He also admitted to having hunting rifles at home. But he told investigators, "Colt is allowed to use them when supervised but does not have unfettered access to them." Likewise, Colt said "had never made any comments about shooting up a school or heard anyone talking about it." So authorities didn't pursue action.
The director of the GBI, Chris Hosey, spoke out about the shooting. He said, "You all have likely seen reports of incidents of other students making threats today at various schools around our state. In each of these incidents, police law enforcement took charges, and they made arrests, acted very swiftly as we take incidents like this very seriously across this state."
He also encouraged the Georgia community to continue to heal together.
"This is a time for all of us as a community and a state, to come together and remain vigilant," he said. "Students must be supported and encouraged here in this community and across the state to contact a member of their school faculty with any and all concerns of suspicious activity that they may see."
Hosey also said that federal and state organizations will continue to work together.
"Local, state and federal law enforcement will continue to work together around the clock in relation to this incident here and any other incidents that come up around this state that raise concern for the safety of our students, faculty and citizens here in the State of Georgia."
