(Now that things have calmed down media-wise, and there is solid information, here’s a post. I’m glad to see the parent and gun owner held accountable; for this, and always. I am never in favor of charging a minor as an adult, though there should be consequences laced heavily with rehabilitation. But the parent and gun owner should be fully responsible because they’re actual adults, and the parents (some child shooters will not have parents, so this goes to the caregiver.) Gun owners should always know that their guns are secure, and tell law enforcement when they’re not secure. Others’s mileage with these things may vary, and you’re welcome to chime in!)
Colin Gray faces four involuntary manslaughter, two second-degree murder and eight cruelty to children counts
The father of the teen suspected in the Georgia school shooting has been arrested, the Georgia bureau of investigation has said.
Colin Gray, 54, was arrested by the bureau in connection to the shooting at Apalachee high school. Colin is the father of Colt Gray, the 14-year-old who is suspected of fatally shooting two students and two teachers with an assault-style rifle at the high school on Wednesday.
He is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia bureau said.
“His charges are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia bureau of investigations, told reporters on Thursday evening.
“What are we facing? Heartbreak. A young person brought a gun into a school, committed an evil act and took lives, and injured people not just physically but mentally,” said the Barrow county sheriff, Jud Smith, during the news conference.
The teenager has been charged as an adult in the deaths of the school students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and educators Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, Hosey said.
At least nine other people – seven students and two teachers – were taken to hospitals with injuries and all are expected to make a full recovery, Smith said.
Colin Gray is being held at the Barrow county detention center.
More than a year ago, the alleged shooter was interviewed by Georgia police after they received tips about online posts threatening a school shooting. Police did not have enough probable cause to arrest him then, according to the Georgia bureau of investigation.
In that 2023 inquiry, the father said he had hunting guns in the house but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them, and the son denied making the threats online, the FBI said.
Georgia state and Barrow county investigators say the younger Gray used an “AR platform style weapon”, or semiautomatic rifle, to carry out the attack in which two teachers and two 14-year-old students were killed.
It remained unclear how the shooter obtained the weapon.
Investigators have yet to comment on what may have motivated the first US campus mass shooting since the start of the school year.
Jackson county sheriff’s investigators closed the case after being unable to substantiate that either Gray was connected to the Discord account where the threats were made, and did not find grounds to seek the needed court order to confiscate the family’s guns, according to police reports released by the sheriff’s office on Thursday.
“This case was worked, and at the time the boy was 13, and it wasn’t enough to substantiate,” Janis Mangum, the Jackson county sheriff, said in an interview. “If we get a judge’s order or we charge somebody, we take firearms for safekeeping.”
The younger Gray was taken into custody shortly after the shooting and was being held without bond at the Gainesville regional youth detention center, Glenn Allen, the Georgia department of juvenile justice communications director, said on Thursday.
His arraignment is set for Friday morning before a Georgia superior court judge in Barrow county by video camera.
While parents are not usually held criminally liable if their child shoots someone, recent high-profile events are evidence that they could face charges in the future. In November 2023, Deja Taylor of Virginia was sentenced to 21 months on two federal charges after her then six-year-old son shot his teacher in January.
The elder Gray’s arrest also comes months after the unprecedented conviction of the parents of a Michigan high school student who shot and killed four students on 30 November. In February, Jennifer Crumbley was convicted on four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The next month, her husband, James Crumbley, was convicted on the same charges. The pair was sentenced to serve at least 10 years in prison.
“I didn’t really think about what precedent it was setting,” Karen McDonald, the prosecutor for Oakland county who brought the case against the Crumbleys, told CNN on Thursday. “If nothing else I would’ve hoped that the highly publicized details of this case would steer parents and make them think twice.”
“It’s enraging that this could still happen when it’s so easily preventable,” she continued.
This article was amended on 6 September 2024. An early version said Deja Taylor was sentenced to 21 years, not 21 months.
Scottie's Playtime 
The parents should be charged as accomplices in these cases, because they FAILED to keep these firearms they own locked up, safe and sound, and, these children who took their parents’ guns and, commited mass murders deserved to get charged as ADULTS, no matter if they’re eighteen or not, and get either death sentence or life-in-prison with NO chance of parole, as they DESERVE to live without freedom, for, taking the lives of, others. But the biggest problem is still, how accessible these, firearms are, and yet, there won’t a gun control law getting signed any time soon.
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Hi. Like you Ali I do not support the death penalty, it is proven not to be a deterrent, and the risk of killing innocent people is way too high. Plus if someone does a horrendous crime death is too easy a way out. They suffer more by having to live in prison. The idea of taking a child and treating them as an adult … why is it only in crime we do that? Why not in sex? Why not in buying and selling property? What about working or making money? Because we realize their brains are not developed nor are their emotional understandings / control developed enough. No 14 yr old can understand or comprehend that doing something like this will end their existence as a person and leave them incarcerated for life, having guards and other inmates controlling their lives, having people checking their genitals and asses anytime they want or need, having no freedom, very few rights. Not ever having a girlfriend, nor the ability to go get a meal anytime they want, nothing but prison for the next 60 years if they live that long. No child can reason that out. Do they need to be punished, yes. Harshly yes. But do not destroy what might someday be a decent person. Prisons should be a place of rehabilitation, instead dystopian places of vengeance and revenge. Hugs. Scottie
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Exactly my reasoning for disliking charging minors as adults. They do not make decisions the same way they will when they’re adults. Also, especially in the cases of gun crimes, the adults who allowed their firearms to come into the hands of minors should pay full consequences. If we can’t get gun control or ammo control laws that are sensible, the owners of the weapons and the ammo are going to have to step up on their own, and either provide security for their weapons, or be accountable for crimes committed with their weapons.
If we ever see a case where a weapon was stored in a safe, unloaded, with an unlock only the one owner knows, and ammo in another similarly secured location, and a minor went to the effort to overcome the security and obtain the weapon and ammo then go on a shooting spree, maybe we can talk about charging as an adult, and letting the owner off because they took full responsibility but were still victimized. Seems like sensible gun laws would be easier, though. Thanks, Scottie!
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Hi Ali. I agree with all you wrote. But I also think that people that want to have firearms should be required to have insurance just like people who want to have cars have to. A few times of having the insurance rising with each firearm and each shooting they have to pay out to the victims, gun owners will take their guns seriously and safeguard them. Hugs. Scottie
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Oh, absolutely insurance should be required! Some states have tried that, but companies just laughed. I’m not certain there could be a federal law passed to require insurance, and to require insurance companies to cover firearms. State laws won’t help much for long; companies will simply leave the states that require firearm coverage, much as they leave when the weather is too extreme for the companies to pay claims and stay in business. But I like the idea of insurance. I think owning a firearm and ammo should be like owning and operating a motor vehicle. I think the licensing should be as strict as qualifying for an abortion in many states that still allow it, and should be renewed annually.
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