Suspected Georgia school shooter’s mom says teachers noticed red flags before she called to warn them

The mother of the suspected gunman in last week’s shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High School says she warned the school the morning of the attack, and teachers had already noticed red flags.  

In an interview with ABC News published Tuesday, Marcee Gray said she called the school counselor on the morning of Sept. 4, 2024, the day of the shooting, to warn officials about a concerning message she’d received from her son, Colt Gray. 

“The counselor said, ‘Well, I wanted to let you know that, earlier this morning, one of Colt’s teachers had sent me an email that said Colt had been making references to school shootings,” Gray told the outlet. “Between my gut feelings, the text messages and now this email, you all need to go, like, run to the classroom.” 

Gray said the last message she’d received from her son was, “I’m sorry, Mom.” She said his father had received similar texts, one that said, “I’m sorry” and “You’re not to blame for this.” 

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She also said she’d called Apalachee nearly a week earlier because “I wanted Colt to be admitted to an inpatient treatment. Colt was on board with it.” 

When she heard about the shooting, Gray said, she “fell to the ground and just started screaming.” 

“I knew what had happened. I just knew in my gut,” she said, calling it “unfathomable” what happened to the victims.” 

“If I could take their place, I would,” Gray told ABC News. “I would in a heartbeat.” 

Fox News Digital has contacted Gray and the district for additional comment. 

Suspected shooter Colt Gray, 14  (The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office)

Officials say Colt Gray, 14, shot and killed students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Eight other students and a teacher were injured — seven of them shot — and are expected to recover.

Marcee Gray’s sister, Annie Brown, told The Washington Post her sister had texted her saying she spoke with a school counselor and warned staff of an “extreme emergency” before the killings. Brown said Marcee Gray urged them to “immediately” find her son to check on him.

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Brown provided screenshots of the text exchange to the newspaper, which also reported that a call log from the family’s shared phone plan showed a call was made to the school at 9:50 a.m. Warrants for Gray’s arrest say the shooting started at 10:20 a.m.

In this image from a video monitor, suspected gunman Colt Gray, left, sits in the Barrow County Courthouse during his first appearance for the shooting at Apalachee High School Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga.  (Brynn Anderson-Pool/Getty Images)

The boy’s grandfather, Charles Polhamus, has told multiple news outlets that Marcee Gray got a text from her son Wednesday saying he was sorry. Polhamus told CNN Marcee Gray drove to Winder, more than 200 miles from Fitzgerald, immediately after the shooting.

Authorities have said Gray’s father, Colin Gray, gave Colt access to the semiautomatic AR-15 style rifle used in the shooting. It’s not clear how Gray brought the gun to campus or what he did with it in the two hours between school starting at 8:15 a.m. and when shots first rang out.

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Colt Gray was charged last week as an adult with four counts of felony murder in the shooting and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole or life with the possibility of parole if convicted.

Colin Gray became the first parent of a school shooting suspect to be charged in Georgia, District Attorney Brad Smith said Friday. Colin Gray was charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children for providing his son with the rifle.

Colin Gray is jailed in Barrow County after declining to seek bail in a brief court hearing Friday in Winder. Colt Gray is being held in a juvenile detention center after declining to seek bail. Neither has been indicted nor entered a plea.

Alleged Apalachee school shooter Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray’s former neighborhood in Jefferson Sept. 6, 2024. Both lived in the home until an eviction in May 2022. (Ben Hendren for Fox News Digital)

It’s unclear if Barrow County School authorities knew before the shooting that Colt and Colin Gray previously had been interviewed by a sheriff’s deputy in neighboring Jackson County in May 2023 after a report of an online threat to shoot up a middle school that Colt Gray, then 13, attended.

Colin Gray told the investigator back then that Colt had access to unloaded guns in the house but knew “how to use them and not use them.” He also said his son had struggled since he and his wife separated and that Colt was picked on in school.

Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.