Tuesday, a Georgia jury reinforced a growing legal reality: Accountability in school shootings may not end with the shooter. Texans should take note.

Colin Gray, 55, faces up to 180 years in prison after a Barrow County jury found him guilty on more than two dozen counts, including second-degree murder. Prosecutors said he gave his son, Colt Gray, access to a semi-automatic rifle despite documented warning signs, including a prior law enforcement investigation into online threats attributed to the teen. Colt Gray is alleged to have killed two classmates and two teachers and wounded nine others at Georgia’s Apalachee High School in September 2024.

This is not the first time a jury has drawn that conclusion. In 2024, James and Jennifer Crumbley became the first parents in the United States convicted of involuntary manslaughter after their son carried out the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan. The Georgia verdict suggests the Michigan case was not an anomaly.

For decades, the national debate over school shootings has focused almost exclusively on the person who pulled the trigger, the weapon used or institutional failures. These verdicts shift attention upstream.

The pattern is consistent: leakage of threats, fixation on prior attackers, escalating instability — and access to firearms. According to the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, 76% of school attackers obtained their firearms from their home or from a relative’s home. Most often the weapons were legally owned. But when specific threats emerge and parents are formally notified of serious concerns, access can determine whether a crisis is contained or catastrophic.

In both the Crumbley and Gray cases, authorities had documented troubling behavior. Parents were notified of credible warning signs.

I have studied this issue closely for nearly a decade — not as an abstraction, but as a father with two daughters in school at the time of the Parkland High School shooting in Florida in February 2018. That proximity drove me to speak with law enforcement, review research on targeted school violence and reach out to experts online.

I write this as a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the Second Amendment. To be clear, responsible citizens have the right to defend themselves and their families. But rights do not erase responsibility.

Two verdicts in two states do not create a nationwide consensus. But they suggest that when documented warnings and weapon access intersect, juries may treat the resulting harm as foreseeable.

This is not a call for new laws, nor does it mean every parent of a struggling teenager faces criminal exposure. The line appears narrower: credible threats, formal warnings, unchanged access.

For Texans, where gun ownership rates are among the highest in the nation, that should matter.

After Uvalde, Texas focused on campus security. House Bill 3, passed in 2023, requires an armed security officer on every public school campus and increased funding for school safety. Many North Texas districts strengthened School Resource Officer programs and tightened controlled-entry protocols, adding layers between the parking lot and the classroom.

Those measures harden schools. These verdicts clarify responsibility inside the home.

The Second Amendment grants rights. It does not insulate negligence.

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WASHINGTON – Newly released videos showing the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent in Texas last year call into question assertions by the Department of Homeland Security that a driver intentionally rammed an agent with his car immediately before he was killed.

The videos, including from officer body cameras, offer the first visual account of the shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, during a beach trip last year. Hours of footage and other law enforcement records were released Friday following a public records request from The Associated Press and other news outlets.

Martinez’s death was the earliest of at least six fatal shootings by federal agents since President Donald Trump launched a nationwide immigration crackdown in his second term, and is among several cases in which video has called into question the administration’s initial narratives.

The Texas Rangers closed their investigation into the March 15, 2025, shooting after a grand jury declined last week to file any criminal charges against Homeland Security Investigations Supervisory Special Agent Jack Stevens, who fired the fatal shots, according to records released by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

In a written statement included in the files, Stevens said he fired to protect his fellow agents, police officers and the public from what he feared was a potential terrorist attack intended to cause mass casualties. A DHS spokesperson said last month the HSI agent fired defensive shots after the driver “intentionally ran over” his fellow agent, “resulting in him being on the hood of the vehicle.”

The newly released body camera videos, taken from behind Martinez’s car, do not clearly show the vehicle striking an agent.

Another video shows Joshua Orta, who was riding in the car with Martinez, telling investigators that his friend had not intended to harm federal officers but had “panicked” because he feared getting arrested for driving while intoxicated.

“He didn’t know what to do. Like he definitely didn’t want to go to jail,” Orta said. “But as far as like running over an officer … he wouldn’t do that.”

Spokespersons for DHS did not respond to requests for comment about the videos.

‘Shots fired, shots fired’

While local media reported at the time the shooting involved a police officer, DHS did not publicly disclose its agents were involved until after the AP and other media outlets reported it last month.

Martinez was just days past his 23rd birthday when he and Orta drove from their hometown of San Antonio down to South Padre Island, a popular spring break party destination. They drank with friends and smoked marijuana before heading back out on the town, Orta told investigators.

Martinez was driving his blue Ford sedan when, shortly after midnight, they came upon the scene where South Padre police officers were directing traffic around a two-car collision at a busy intersection. Also at the scene were three HSI agents from a maritime border security task force redirected to conduct immigration enforcement, according to documents.

In body camera footage captured by two of the island’s police officers, Martinez’s car can be seen slowly approaching the intersection, appearing to go straight as vehicles were being instructed to turn left. Martinez’s car slows to a crawl — nearly a full stop — for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Once the pedestrians are out of the way, the car slowly pulls into the intersection before stopping again as the HSI agents approach, shouting instructions for the driver to stop.

One of the HSI agents, identified in documents as Special Agent Hector Sosa, moves in front of the car. Stevens is on the driver’s side and reaches toward the door.

“Get him out, get him out,” one of the officers can be heard shouting.

Martinez’s car begins slowly moving forward and turning to the left, where other vehicles were traveling. Stevens, on the driver’s side of the car, is keeping pace and appears to be leaning in toward the open driver’s side window. As officers yell for Martinez to stop, Stevens pulls his weapon and rapidly fires three shots through the window before quickly backing away.

“Shots fired, shots fired,” one of the police officers wearing a camera yells into his radio.

The entire incident transpires in about 15 seconds.

Agents pull the driver from the car

The blue Ford quickly comes to a full stop and Martinez is pulled from the vehicle and handcuffed by multiple officers. Orta is also pulled from the passenger seat and handcuffed.

Martinez remains in cuffs and on the ground, unmoving, for about a minute before paramedics already on the scene of the earlier traffic accident begin to provide medical aid.

An autopsy report shows all three shots fired by Stevens hit Martinez, with bullets traveling through his left arm before entering his torso and piercing his heart, lungs, liver and other organs. The autopsy report also showed that Martinez’s blood alcohol level was 0.12%, well above the legal limit to drive in Texas of 0.08%.

In a three-page written statement provided to the Texas Rangers almost two months after the shooting, Stevens said he fired his weapon as Martinez “accelerated forward, striking Special Agent Sosa who wound up on the hood of the vehicle.” He also said he narrowly avoided being run over, being struck by the driver’s side and “causing the mirror to break off of the vehicle.” A photo from the scene showed the mirror damaged, but still on the car.

As he fired, the agent said that “still fresh on his mind” were recent domestic and international events, including a man who had driven a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans weeks earlier.

“The driver’s eyes were open widely, fist clenched to the steering wheel, and he was looking past the officers on scene as he failed to comply with the loud and repeated verbal commands of multiple law enforcement officers,” Stevens wrote. “This is a behavior I have observed in my training and experience as a pre attack indicator and sign of noncompliance as the suspect is looking in the path of their intended movement and is not indicative of compliance. This path of movement, if left unmitigated, would, using the vehicle as a weapon, have resulted in numerous casualties.”

As reported by AP last month, an internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation said the agent struck by the car was treated for an unspecified knee injury at a nearby hospital and released. The newly released videos show the agent after the shooting arresting Orta and walking without any visible injury or limp.

‘That’s when he panicked and turned the wheel’

Orta said Martinez had been drinking earlier that night — several shots and a beer — and smoked marijuana when he approached the traffic checkpoint where a vehicle accident had occurred earlier.

One officer spotted an open alcoholic beverage near Martinez but directed the car to keep moving and turn to the left. Instead, Martinez continued straight, toward the accident and more officers.

“That’s when he panicked and turned the wheel, and he didn’t floor the gas but we kind of went a little bit and I guess they thought he was like trying to run the cop over or something,” Orta said.

Orta said that their car came to a “full stop” at first. Then Martinez turned to the left with the car “barely moving.”

“I saw the officer kind of get on the hood. Like he didn’t hit him, but like he kind of like, you know what I mean, caught his feet,” Orta said. “It was just slowly moving and they started shooting.”

Orta died Feb. 21 in a car accident in San Antonio.

Lawyers representing Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, said in a statement the newly released videos and other evidence showed his car was barely moving when Stevens fired at point-blank range.

“This batch of evidence shows no justification for Ruben’s killing,” lawyers Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm said. “Still, our pursuit of full transparency will continue until we have all the facts. We, and the public, have yet to see all of the evidence held by the government.”

___

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho, and Brook from New Orleans. Associated Press reporters Jesse Bedayn in Denver, Jaun Lozano in Houston and John Hanna it Topeka, Kansas, contributed.

Despite failing to defeat a slate of anti-gambling candidates this primary cycle and facing powerful opposition in the Texas Capitol, casino interests say they are undeterred in their effort to elect legislators favorable to their industry in hopes of one day legalizing gambling in the state.

Republican state Reps. David Lowe, Terri Leo-Wilson, Mark Dorazio and Andy Hopper, all gambling opponents, defeated primary challenges from candidates backed by billionaire Miriam Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands casino empire on Tuesday. Outspoken anti-gambling activist Cheryl Bean also overcame opposition from Texas Sands PAC and Texas Defense PAC – super PACs funded by the casino company – in the open race for the Republican nomination to represent House District 94 in Tarrant County.

“If the prize is destination resort casinos in Texas, Las Vegas Sands is now further away from it in 2026 than they were in 2023,” said Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University.

In a news release Wednesday morning, Sands PAC said it would continue to invest in and organize for Texas candidates in favor of bringing casino gambling to Texas.

“The long game matters,” read the statement. “And Texas Sands PAC is playing to win.”

The statement underscores the industry’s strategy to spend millions of dollars across the state in hopes of slowly growing its standing in both chambers of the Texas Legislature. Adelson donated $9 million to both Texas Sands PAC and the Texas Defense PAC last summer to back pro-gambling candidates. Candidates received direct donations from Texas Sands PAC, while the Texas Defense PAC spent millions more to indirectly boost candidates through mail, digital, and voter-contact campaigns.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas Senate, remains a vocal critic of legalizing gambling: in both the 2023 and 2025 legislative sessions, he vowed that the Senate would not even vote on pro-gambling bills.

In 2023, sports gambling legislation advanced from the House but died in the Senate. Two years later, neither casino nor sports gambling bills got traction in the House despite millions spent on lobbyists by Las Vegas Sands.

With the 75-year-old Patrick securing the Republican nomination for a fourth four-year term as lieutenant governor, the deadlock looks unlikely to break any time soon.

But Sands appears to have nothing but time and money, pursuing incremental wins until the Senate is run by someone more sympathetic.

Adding to its base of support in the House, however, has proven challenging.

Republican businessman Kyle Morris, Lowe’s opponent, received $140,000 from the Texas Sands PAC but lost by more than 27 percentage points, according to unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of State. Morris was the single largest beneficiary of the PAC among non-incumbent candidates.

Meanwhile, former Mont Belvieu City Manager Nathan Watkins, Leo-Wilson’s opponent, received $110,000 and lost his race by 25 percentage points, according to unofficial results.

Those defeats come after Republican John Huffman, the former mayor of Southlake, failed to advance to the runoff in the Senate District 9 special election in November despite receiving $1.2 million from the Texas Sands PAC, according to campaign finance reports.

“Our mission remains unchanged: trust Texas voters,” Andy Abboud, senior vice president of government relations for Sands, wrote in a statement Wednesday. “We have and will continue to support candidates who are committed to a business-friendly environment that keeps the Texas economy strong, competitive, and growing. Cycle after cycle, the record speaks for itself, and we are proud of the role we played in delivering those results. We congratulate every candidate who earned the trust of Texas voters.”

Las Vegas Sands’ perseverance in the face of a string of defeats makes sense when factoring in the value legal casino gambling in Texas could bring to the company, said Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

“There’s enough to gain that they’ll continue to spend,” Wilson said. “If Texas does at some point open up to casino gambling, there will be an enormous amount of money to be made here in the state.”

Sands does have a significant cohort of supporters, and its Sands PAC gave direct donations to more than 40 incumbents in the House and Senate leading up to Tuesday’s election.

“They’ve been successful in protecting a lot of incumbents, but that doesn’t move the needle on the issues they care about,” Wilson said.

If anything, gambling is losing ground in Texas: The Texas Lottery Commission was abolished this year after allegations of corruption surrounding a winning ticket sold by an online courier. And some conservative lawmakers are pointing to recent NBA gambling-related indictments as an example of the moral decay caused by gambling.

Despite the defeats, available public polling in the state shows strong public support for legalizing both casinos and sports gambling, though Republican voters have expressed mixed views. Legalizing gambling in Texas would require the voters to weigh in on the issue directly through an amendment to the state constitution.

“I definitely think they’re in the long game,” Jones said. “I do think that they had hoped the long game wouldn’t be so long.”

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