Footage has emerged of the 14-year-old suspect in a Georgia school shooting being interviewed by police over online threats of a similar attack more than a year ago.

Deputies with Jackson County’s Sheriff’s Office in Winder, Georgia, visited the home of Colt Gray, then 13, in May 2023 following a tip-off from the FBI that somebody had posted on Discord about planning to “shoot up a middle school tomorrow.”

Gray has now been charged with the murder of four people—two students, and two teachers—in a shooting spree that also saw nine others wounded at the town’s Apalachee High School. Local police say Gray has admitted “I did it” while being interrogated after his arrest on September 4, while his mother has claimed to have warned the school around half an hour before the attack took place.

In the bodycam footage of the 2023 visit—released by the sheriff’s office on Monday, and shared online by NBC and other outlets—Gray denied posting the comments on Discord, assuring them: “I would never say something like that,” and insisting that he had deleted his account on the chat platform several months earlier.

One of the deputies responded by telling the teenager: “I got no choice but to take you at your word right now, but like I was telling your dad if we found out otherwise, then it’s a different story.”

Colt’s father, Colin Gray also appears in the footage, telling officers that despite being bullied his son was “doing really good” at school. Colin Gray has since been arrested on four counts of manslaughter, two of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children in the wake of the killings earlier this month.

The father told officers during the visit last year that his son had been struggling with family-related stress at the time, following his parents’ separation and subsequent eviction from their home.

He added that he’d been training his son in the “responsible” use of firearms, taking him on hunting trips in an effort to get him out of the house and to stop playing video games.

“We do a lot of shooting, we do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year,” Gray is heard to say in a longer clip of the interview, shared by CNN. “I don’t know anything about him saying sh-t like that [but] I’m gonna be mad as hell if he did,” he added.

Colt’s grandfather, Charles Polhamus, has since described Colin as “evil,” alleging he drove the 14-year-old “to do what he did” last week through a relentless campaign of psychological and physical abuse. His aunt, Annie Polhaumus Brown, has also spoken about her nephew’s troubled childhood, and vowed to stand by him at trial.

If convicted, Colt faces up to life in prison, with his father facing a maximum total of 180 years behind bars.

ATLANTA (AP) — Many students in Georgia’s Barrow County are headed back to class Tuesday, six days after a shooting killed two teachers and two students at the school district’s Apalachee High School northeast of Atlanta.

While no return date has been set for the 1,900 students at that high school, the 13,000 students in Barrow County’s other schools will return, including at the middle school and elementary school that border the Apalachee campus in Winder.

Superintendent Dallas LeDuff, in a video message Sunday, said sheriff’s deputies and state troopers will provide extra security when schools reopen Tuesday, with counseling available at all campuses. He said that if students or employees aren’t ready to return, they should contact their school’s principal for aid.

“We know the days ahead are going to be difficult, and that we have some staff and some students who are not ready to return to school,” LeDuff said. “We also believe as a school system that it is our responsibility to provide a safe space for those who are.”

Sabrina Masters Reed, a third grade teacher at Holsenback Elementary School, said she attended grief and trauma training on Monday. She said she’s not sure how many students will return Tuesday, but said many parents will need their children to return so they can go to work without having to find child care.

Many in the community remain in shock nearly a week after the shootings, said Reed, who leads the county’s chapter of the Georgia Association of Educators, the state’s second-largest teachers group.

“I know of other coworkers — who are parents — and parents who chose this community because they thought it was safe here,” Reed said of the rapidly suburbanizing county of 90,000 people. “The thing is, I think it is a safe place here in Barrow County. It’s just a sad fact that these tragedies can happen anywhere in any community in the U.S.”

Relatives and friends are mourning the victims, including teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. A memorial service was held Sunday for Aspinwall, while a Romanian Orthodox Church congregation honored Irimie. Her funeral is set for Saturday.

Colt Gray, 14, is charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded. Authorities have also charged his 54-year-old father, Colin Gray with second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. Investigators allege Colin Gray gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others.

Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, with seven of those hit by gunfire. More of the wounded are going home from hospitals. Doug Griffith said his 15-year-old daughter, Natalie Griffith was released from a hospital on Monday after being treated for gunshot wounds to her arm and wrist.

Natalie Griffith is a freshman and a flute player in the band. She was shot in her algebra class.

“She’s got an A in algebra, and she’s extremely proud of that,” Doug Griffith said.

Griffith is one of a number of relatives seeking to raise donations through GoFundMe. He said he wants to make sure his daughter has help, as well as to support other victims.

“I just want to make sure that she has the support that she’s going to need because this is uncharted territory,” Griffith said.

On Monday the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency and county officials opened a community recovery center in Winder, offering counseling, legal and financial assistance and other services.

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