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Mother of Georgia shooting suspect said she called school before attack, report says

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Mother of Georgia shooting suspect said she called school before attack, report says


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WINDER, Ga. − The mother of the 14-year-old boy charged with killing four people at a rural Georgia high school said she alerted the school counselor the morning of the shooting that there was an “extreme emergency” and her son needed to be found, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Law enforcement received reports of shots fired at Apalachee High School around 10:20 a.m. Wednesday. The attack left two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, dead and nine others injured. The call log obtained by the Post shows Marcee Gray, the alleged shooter’s mother, made a 10-minute phone call to the school about half an hour before the shooting is believed to have started.

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“I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school,” Gray said in a text message to her sister, Annie Brown, according to a screenshot of the conversation obtained by the Post. “I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”

Brown declined to elaborate what prompted Gray to warn the school, but Charles Polhamus, the suspect’s grandfather, told the New York Post Saturday that Gray rushed to Winder, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, after getting a text message from her son that read “I’m sorry, mom.”

Brown and Polhamus both declined to comment when reached by USA TODAY. Gray and officials from the Barrow County School System did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray, was charged with four counts of felony murder and is being held without bond at a juvenile detention facility. His father, Colin Gray, 54, was also arraigned Friday on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. Neither son nor father entered a plea or requested bond during their respective hearings.

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Contributing: Christopher Cann, Eve Chen, Claire Thornton, USA TODAY



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Georgia teen school shooting suspect lived in series of rental homes as emerging details shed light on family

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Georgia teen school shooting suspect lived in series of rental homes as emerging details shed light on family


A timeline of where the 14-year-old Georgia high school student lived in a short period of time sheds light on his tumultuous home life.

Colt Gray, 14, and his father, Colin Gray, 54, are charged in the killings of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County. Nine others were hurt, with seven of the injured shot.

The teen’s childhood was unstable, with the young teen moving to at least three rental homes in a short period of time.

According to the teen’s father, in recently released police interrogation transcripts, “[Colt’s] gone through a lot,” with Colin Gray saying that the teen wanted a “simple life.”

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ALLEGED GEORGIA SHOOTER’S FATHER SAID SON WAS BULLIED AT SCHOOL, CALLED ‘GAY’ BY CLASSMATES: ‘VERY DIFFICULT’

Jefferson, Georgia Homes:

The Grays lived in two rental properties in Jefferson, Georgia – a small town with approximately 15,000 people.

The family lived in one rental property, with the current tenant telling police that the family had been evicted in May 2022, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

The subsequent divorce between Colin and Marcee Gray separated the family of five. Colt went to live with his father, while the two younger siblings initially lived with their mother. 

Apalachee school shooter Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray’s former neighborhood in Jefferson, Georgia. Saturday, September 7, 2024.  (Ben Hendren for Fox News Digital)

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Following the divorce, Colin and Colt Gray rented another single family home in a subdivision in the town.

Neighbors told Fox News Digital that they lived there only for a “couple of months” before leaving.

Home where Colt Gray lived

Apalachee school shooter suspect Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray’s former home in Jefferson, Georgia. Saturday, September 7, 2024. The pair rented the home. (Ben Hendren for Fox News Digital)

The Jefferson rental home was where police interviewed Colt and Colin after the teen, in May 2023, had allegedly made violent threats to shoot up the middle school.

In interview transcripts, reviewed by Fox News Digital, Colin Gray is heard telling investigators that his son struggled with his parent’s divorce.

The father said that his son “had some problems” at his previous middle school, West Jackson Middle School, but it had “gotten a lot better” since he changed schools to Jefferson Middle School. The previous middle school was approximately 70 miles north of Jefferson, Georgia.

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WHO IS THE ALLEGED GEORGIA SCHOOL SHOOTER? WHAT WE KNOW

Interview transcripts, taken by Investigator Dan Miller in 2023, cast the teen as someone who had been picked on and “ridiculed” by classmates.

“[Colt] just wants us to have a simple life. All that like, he should be excited about getting into 8th grade. It just was very difficult for him to go to school and not get picked on by, you know, it went from one thing to another to, you know, he was talking to the couple friends he has,” said Gray.

“I was trying to get him on the golf team … like, ‘Oh look Colt’s gay. He’s dating that guy.’ Just ridiculed him day after day after day.”

The home of the alleged Apalachee school shooter

General view of the home of alleged Apalachee school shooter Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray on Harrison Mill Road in Winder. Friday, September 6, 2024. (Ben Hendren for Fox News Digital)

Winder, Georgia Home:

By Nov. 2023, Colin and Colt had moved to a new rental property in Winder, Georgia. The Winder address is where the teen boy resided prior to his arrest following the school massacre on Wednesday.

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The home is where Colt’s mother went and vandalized her ex-husband’s truck in Nov. 2023 in a violent rampage that resulted in prison time.

According to court documents, reviewed by Fox News Digital, Marcee Anne Gray, came to the Winder, Georgia rental property and scratched two words into her ex’s truck, which was owned by the construction company he worked for.

The damages cost approximately $3,000 to fix, court documents said.

Marcee Anne Gray

Marcee Anne Gray in a 2023 booking photo from the Ben Hill County Sheriff’s Office. (Ben Hill County Sheriff Office)

A subsequent search of the mother’s vehicle resulted in a slew of charges after authorities found illicit drugs hidden inside.

The arrest warrant states that Gray had a glass jar containing methamphetamine, a “baggie” containing fentanyl, another “baggie” containing multiple muscle relaxants, and a glass pipe “used for the ingestion of narcotics.” 

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GEORGIA SCHOOL SHOOTING: NEW AUDIO OF ALLEGED SHOOTER, FATHER ENCOUNTER WITH POLICE OVER 2023 ONLINE THREATS

The warrant notes that she concealed the identity of her Nissan Rogue vehicle by affixing a tag for a Nissan Kick.

In December 2023, Marcee Gray was charged and pleaded guilty to single counts of using a license plate to conceal identity, criminal damage to property in the second degree and criminal trespass/family violence. 

Marcee Gray was prosecuted under Georgia’s First Offender Act, which allows eligible defendants to plead guilty without being convicted. Under the state’s First Offender Act, Gray served the first 46 days in confinement in jail, rather than the full 5 years of her sentence.

For the remainder of the sentence, she was on probation.

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Under probation, documents show that Gray was prohibited from having any contact with her husband, Colin Gray, except through a third party for matters concerning their shared children.

Timeline of Mass Shooting

The shooting was first reported at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The sheriff’s office received an alert of reports of an active shooter at 10:20 a.m.

GBI director Chris Hosey said law enforcement was at the scene “within minutes.”

“Law enforcement had a very, very swift response to this incident,” Hosey previously said.

Officers located Colt Gray swiftly, with the teen suspect being taken into custody.

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The 14-year-old is being tried as an adult and is being charged with four counts of murder. He is accused of using a semiautomatic AR-style rifle to kill two fellow students and two teachers.

Colin Gray enters the Barrow County courthouse

Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga.  (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

His father, Colin Gray, faces related charges in the latest attempt by prosecutors to hold parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings.

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“You don’t have to have been physically injured in this to be a victim,” District Attorney Brad Smith told reporters on Friday. “Everyone in this community is a victim. Every child in that school was a victim.”

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.

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Georgia Tech vs. Syracuse – Staff Predictions

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Georgia Tech vs. Syracuse – Staff Predictions


Benjamin Tankersley

Georgia Tech wins 35-14.

I probably should be more worried about this game, but honestly, Cuse didn’t impress against a pretty bad Ohio team. As long as things are tightened up with penalties, I think Tech cruises to an easy victory. I expect the playbook to open up a little more, and as long as the defense can try to maintain McCord, they should be fine.

Logan Sandor

Georgia Tech wins 36-30.

Weird things happen when we play Syracuse. Last year was a good example where we should have run away with the game, but somehow Syracuse stayed in the game while using a Tight End at QB and basically repeatedly running the ball up the middle on us. This year Syracuse obviously has more talent to work with and we should expect them to put up a very tough fight. Tech needs to stay confident and focused throughout the game. If there’s a weird fumble or some bad flags and we get down early Tech cannot afford to get tilted. We have seen our Jackets stay in games before and come out with the win, I expect that to happen here. Simultaneously I expect to see a lot of shenanigans and to be way more stressed than I should be.

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Jack Purdy

Georgia Tech wins 31-28

Tech winning by exactly the spread? Creative, I know. This is going to be the first real test of our secondary (DJ I think we can all say ain’t good) with Kyle McCord. Ohio may have been basically made of ghosts last week, but Cuse got a chance to fully run what they want to do, which isn’t helpful for us. They will score on us if they’re having anything close to a normal day. Every team will. The Buster Faulkner factor is what keeps me hopeful for this game. We very deliberately ran simple stuff last week and coasted over Georgia State and managed to get to a spot where the starters were out (albeit not as soon as we may have wanted but we don’t do the coaching). Tech has shown a consistent trait in preparing well and having a path to victory. With a little help from Aidan Birr’s leg, I think we get there again.

Jeff Cramer

Georgia Tech wins 38-21

When I submitted the picks for the ACC Preseason player’s list I included LB Marlowe Wax and TE Oronde Gadsden for the respective positions. The problem for Syracuse is that Marlowe Wax was injured during the Ohio game and won’t return for some time. Last week against the Ohio Bobcats, Syracuse had serious trouble stopping the run game from an offense that only returned two starters from the year prior. They gave up over 200 yards to Ohio’s running back and without Wax being able to defend the center of the field Georgia Tech should have a great day running the ball.

Kyle McCord looked crisp from nice, clean pockets all game and Gadsden was a prime target as he had over 100 yards receiving and a touchdown. WR Pena should be another target Tech should keep an eye on. However, many of the reception came with little pass rush and plenty of busted coverage from the Ohio secondary. I think Georgia Tech will present a big step up in talent level that Syracuse did not face in Week 1. I still believe Syracuse can move the ball fairly well but will be limited by how well Georgia Tech can maintain possession by running the ball.

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Georgia school shooting suspect expected to face more charges as accounts of students’ heroism emerge | CNN

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Georgia school shooting suspect expected to face more charges as accounts of students’ heroism emerge | CNN




CNN
 — 

A 14-year-old student charged with four counts of murder after a mass shooting earlier this week at Apalachee High School is expected to face additional charges in connection with the injured victims, officials said Friday.

As authorities mull more charges and examine the case, a small Georgia community is grieving the two students and two teachers who died Wednesday in the 45th school shooting of 2024 – and the deadliest US school shooting since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville.

In the days since the tragic attack, Apalachee students have given harrowing accounts of the courageous actions they took to protect their classmates and teachers in the face of senseless violence.

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In one classroom, a 14-year-old said she kept the suspect from getting through the door when she saw him pull out a gun. And after a teacher in another classroom was shot, students say they pulled him back inside and used the shirts off their backs to try and stop his bleeding while barricading the door with desks and chairs. Even with a gunshot wound, one teenage boy said he raced to close the classroom door to prevent the shooter from entering.

Victims’ families wiped away tears or clutched stuffed animals as they sat in the Barrow County courtroom Friday during Colt Gray’s arraignment, where he declined to enter a plea to the charges against him.

Prosecutors allege Gray fired an AR-style rifle on campus Wednesday morning, killing four people. Nine others were injured, all but two of whom were shot, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Because of his young age, the maximum penalty Gray could face is life in prison with or without parole, Judge Currie Mingledorff told the teenager in court. In 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled no one can be put to death for crimes committed before the age of 18.

Gray’s father, Colin Gray, 54, faces a maximum sentence of 180 years in prison for four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

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An arrest warrant for Colin Gray alleges he gave his son a firearm “with knowledge he was a threat to himself and others.” He declined to enter a plea at his first court appearance Friday, and neither him nor his son have asked for bond to be set at their hearings.

“I’m just trying to use the tools in my arsenal to prosecute people for the crimes they commit,” Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said.

Smith said he expects additional charges will be filed against Colt Gray in connection with victims who were injured during the shooting. Authorities on Thursday said all nine people wounded in Wednesday’s shooting are expected to make a full recovery.

“When he was taken into custody on Wednesday, we did not have the identities or the conditions of the other victims. So we were not able to charge on those offenses,” Smith said. “So when evidence comes in, and they’ve had a chance to heal physically, emotionally and spiritually, we will get with them, and there will be additional charges that address the other victims.”

The next step in the case against Gray will be a grand jury meeting on October 17. This will be followed by a scheduled arraignment before the trial process is started, Smith said. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 4, Mingledorff said.

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Here’s what we know so far:

• Suspect will be tried as an adult: Colt Gray, who is being held at the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, is slated to remain there while in custody until he turns 17, Glenn Allen, the agency’s spokesperson, told CNN Thursday. Under Georgia law, a juvenile aged 13 to 17 who commits a serious crime is automatically tried as an adult.

• The four people killed: The shooting at Apalachee High School claimed the lives of two 14-year-old students – Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, as well as two teachers – 53-year-old math teacher Cristina Irimie and 39-year-old assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall, who also taught math. Authorities say Irimie was celebrating her birthday with her students the day she was shot and killed, according to a family friend.

 Nine injured are expected to make a full recovery: Of the nine other people injured, seven of them – six students and a teacher – were shot, the GBI said Thursday. The other two – both students – suffered other injuries, the GBI said.

• Suspect was questioned about online threats: In May 2023, law enforcement officials questioned Colt Gray and his father about “online threats to commit a school shooting” that included photos of guns, according to a joint statement from FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Colt Gray, who was 13 at the time, told investigators during that interview that “someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” authorities said. Authorities could not substantiate the threats and the investigation was closed, according to the sheriff’s office.

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• Suspect’s father gifted him the gun involved in shooting: Two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said Colin Gray told authorities he purchased the AR-style rifle used in the school shooting as a holiday present for his son in December 2023 – just months after authorities initially contacted the father about the online threats.

Suspect had writings on past school shootings: During questioning, Gray told investigators “I did it.” As authorities searched his home, they found documents that they believe he wrote referencing past school shootings, including references to the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, a law enforcement source told CNN.

Community members, students, and faculty of Apalachee High School come together for a vigil on September 6, 2024 in Monroe, Georgia.

Bri Jones, 14, was in second period Wednesday when Colt Gray left the classroom, Jones said. “We didn’t notice he left,” Jones said, adding that Gray was “always quiet.”

But Gray came back and knocked on the door, Jones said.

Bri said she peeked out the door before she opened it because that’s what her mom taught her to do.

“As I was looking at the door, he was pulling his gun out, and then I froze up, like I froze up and I said ‘no’ to myself,” she told CNN’s Isabel Rosales.

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The teacher asked for the door to be opened, Bri said, “because she didn’t know he had a gun because she was at her desk.” As she went the open the door, “I was like, ‘no, he has a gun,’” Jones said.

Then, the shooter looked up at them before turning and firing shots, Jones said.

“He was looking at me, my teacher, and then​ somebody was in the hall,” she said. “He turned his head and he just started shooting.”

The students then ran to the back of the class and the teacher turned off the lights, Bri said.

“Once he started shooting, it’s like he kept going, it was so many gunshots after gunshots,” she said. “It felt like he was just shooting forever.”

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If she had opened the class door, Bri said she believes the suspect “would have got every single one of us in that class.”

Another student, 14-year-old Ronaldo Vega, immediately took cover under his desk when the shooting began in his second-period math class, he said. Ronaldo was injured amid the four to six shots fired, but he still stood up quickly to close the classroom door so the shooter “couldn’t come back,” he said.

Only after seeing one of the bullets behind the teacher’s desk did he realize he had been shot and was bleeding, Ronaldo recounted.

Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks to community members, students, and faculty of Apalachee High School who came together for a vigil on September 6 in Monroe, Georgia.

Richard Aspinwall, a math teacher, heard commotion outside his classroom and entered the hallway to see what was going on. When he did, he was shot in the chest by the 14-year-old suspect, according to family friend Julie Woodson, who cited accounts by Aspinwall’s students.

“We had to watch our teacher come back in the classroom holding himself like he’s been shot, and fell to the floor,” 17-year-old Malasia Mitchell said. “And as he kept going, my teacher was shot again.”

Students in the class say they pulled Aspinwall back into the classroom and used the shirts off their backs to try and stop their teacher’s bleeding, according to Woodson.

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Meanwhile, the students closed the door and protected themselves with desks and chairs, Mitchell said.

Woodson said Aspinwall “died as a hero trying to save his students’ lives.”

“If he didn’t walk out and take the bullet … who knows what would’ve happened,” Woodson said.

Malasia remembered her teacher as a “great guy” with “such a happy spirit” — someone who wouldn’t want her to ever give up.

“He wouldn’t want me to just stop coming to school,” she said. “He would want me to keep going.”

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