Credit: Axel Stock
World
Teen and father in Georgia school shooting appear in court for first time
![Teen and father in Georgia school shooting appear in court for first time Teen and father in Georgia school shooting appear in court for first time](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AP24250463465412-1725639822.jpg?resize=1200%2C675)
Fourteen-year-old Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray both face murder charges following a deadly shooting at a US high school.
Colt Gray, the 14-year-old suspect charged with killing four people in a school shooting this week in the United States, has appeared in court for the first time since the attack.
Friday’s proceedings were quickly followed by a second hearing for the suspect’s father, 54-year-old Colin Gray.
The elder Gray faces murder and manslaughter charges related to the shooting, as prosecutors argue he enabled his son’s access to firearms.
“His charges are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey.
Friday was the first time that either defendant stood before a court since the deadly shooting, which killed two students and two teachers and injured nine others at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday.
Authorities said the 14-year-old suspect surrendered without a fight. He faces four charges of felony murder.
In his hearing, Barrow County Superior Court Judge Currie Mingledorff informed the younger Gray that he could face life in prison, correcting himself after erroneously stating that the 14-year-old could face the death penalty.
Because Gray is under the age of 18, he is not eligible for capital punishment despite being charged as an adult. Since he is a minor, his face was also concealed from the media during the proceedings.
Gray is being held without bond at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center and has yet to enter a plea.
Authorities have yet to offer a potential motive in the shooting or provide details about how the 14-year-old obtained the “AR platform-style weapon” used in the attack.
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for December 4.
His father, Colin Gray, was brought before the judge about 40 minutes after the 14-year-old left the room. He faces four charges of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
The Washington Post newspaper reported on Thursday that the 14-year-old’s aunt said he had been “begging for months” for help with mental health issues but did not receive the assistance he needed. The aunt also said the teenager suffered from a “difficult home life”.
Colin Gray is the latest parent to be charged in connection with the actions of a child in a school shooting, and he faces a sentence of up to 180 years in prison.
In April, Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley were convicted of four counts each of involuntary manslaughter after their son Ethan opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan.
Prosecutors argued the Crumbleys failed to adequately secure their firearms and respond to their son’s mental health issues. They were both sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The Crumbleys were the first parents to be convicted in connection to a school shooting carried out by a child in the US.
Experts have long said widespread access to firearms has contributed to the prevalence of school shootings in the country. Conservative lawmakers, however, have rejected efforts to add additional restrictions to firearms access, often pushing to further loosen existing regulations.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
World
Video: How a Single Family Was Shot Dead on a Street in Gaza
![Video: How a Single Family Was Shot Dead on a Street in Gaza Video: How a Single Family Was Shot Dead on a Street in Gaza](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/08/28/world/middleeast/z-BeitLahiaGFX-Anno-horiz-TopArt-0-00-22-15/z-BeitLahiaGFX-Anno-horiz-TopArt-0-00-22-15--facebookJumbo.jpg?video-overlay)
So last December, there was this brief video that was posted on social media. It showed members of a family, the Abu Salahs, dead on a street in Northern Gaza. I’m going to start the story by showing you that video. But just as a warning, it’s extremely graphic. Two brothers lay huddled with their mother, Inshirah. Two other brothers lay on the street, one next to a stretcher. And next to the hand of their father, Saadi, lay a white flag. What struck us about this video is that for all the scenes of death and destruction that we see out of Gaza, what we see on the street is actually quite rare. Normally, when we see evidence of civilian casualties in Gaza, those people have often been killed by bombs or rockets launched from far away. If and when people have been killed by gunfire, the aftermath is seldom captured. But here they were, members of an immediate family, all seemingly killed at once. And as we’ll show, it was Israeli troops who shot them. But what were the circumstances, and why was the family all together? Why were they carrying a stretcher and two shovels? And what about that white flag? When we presented our findings to the Israeli military, they didn’t deny responsibility. They said their forces in the area, quote, “experienced many encounters with terrorists who fight and move in combat areas while wearing civilian clothes.” But our analysis of what happened showed that the Abu Salahs posed no threat, yet were still targeted with clear intention at close range. Here’s the story of who they were, how they ended up on that street at midday on Dec. 6 and how we determined it was Israeli troops who killed them. So the Abu Salah family was displaced from their home in Northern Gaza on Oct. 8, just as Israel launched its military response to the Oct. 7 attacks. It’s been pretty tough to get in touch with people in Northern Gaza because of the war. However, over the course of several months, we were able to get in touch with Hanady Abu Salah. She’s a sister and daughter of the people we see lying dead in the video. She was sheltering in a school just 200 feet away from her family when they were killed and heard the gunfire. Across many conversations with her, Hanady was eager to talk about her family. Hanady said that home ended up being destroyed during the fighting, and that their father had dreamed of rebuilding it after the war. Like many Palestinians, they were forced to flee. They ended up living with other displaced families at a girls high school turned shelter. Still, the violence followed them. This video was filmed by Hanady’s brother Ahmed. Ahmed was one of the brothers killed just weeks later. The school they lived at is here. It’s one of several schools in the immediate area that are now acting as shelters. And just up the road is the Indonesian Hospital. It has a strategic view of the entire area. The makeup and layout of the neighborhood is important to know because at the time of the killings, it was full of civilians coming and going. But the area had also been the site of several clashes between Israeli troops and militants. The I.D.F. has said its purpose there was to root out Hamas fighters operating in and around the Indonesian Hospital, and has generally accused Hamas of using refugee camps as cover for its activities. “The Indonesian Hospital is being used by Hamas to hide the underground command and control center. They use the area around the hospital as a base of terror against Israel today.” The hospital was damaged during I.D.F. operations at least twice in the weeks before the Abu Salahs were killed. [explosion] In one case, after the I.D.F. claimed militants fired from inside the building. Because of the destruction, the hospital could no longer function. After those operations, a video captured several of the brothers inside the hospital helping to clean up the damage. Ahmed. Mahmoud. Yousif. And Srour. It would likely be the same building they were shot from. The night before the killings, witnesses told us they heard the sound of bulldozers at the hospital, signaling that the I.D.F. was back. Satellite imagery shows several structures were destroyed overnight. What happened the next morning set in motion a chain of events which would lead to the shooting of the Abu Salahs several hours later. Hanady said the next morning seemed calmer, so her teenage nephew, Assad, stepped outside to see what had happened overnight. According to Hanady, it was Israeli soldiers, now in control of the hospital, who fired the shot from the complex. We did put this accusation to the I.D.F., but the response that I noted earlier, that militants were in the area disguising themselves as civilians, didn’t specifically address Assad’s death. Hanady sent us a photograph of Assad’s body wrapped in a white burial shroud with blood soaking through it. The file’s data confirms the photo was taken just three hours before his six other family members were killed. There’s another detail about the photograph worth mentioning. The orange stretcher visible beneath the shroud appears to match the type of stretcher seen in the footage of his dead relatives. This also tracks with another detail: the shovels they were carrying. Because according to Hanady, they were on their way back from burying Assad when they were shot. Hanady told us her family first took Assad from the school to this hospital, then back to the school so other family members could say their goodbyes. And finally, they carried him to a cemetery for burial. So the I.D.F. likely saw the family coming and going with the stretcher multiple times to and from the school. Each time, they held their fire until the family headed back to the school after burying Assad. Hanady had been waiting hours for their return and was starting to get worried. Then, around midday, they heard a loud burst of gunfire. Hanady and another person at the scene all said that gunfire was coming from the direction of the Indonesian Hospital. We know the I.D.F. controlled the hospital, not only from witnesses, but from footage released by the Israeli military itself. The footage shows an operation to recover evidence related to the Oct. 7 attacks. Even though its undated, there are clues that place it on the day of the killings. First, look here. The pavement has been torn up. A satellite image taken just two days before on Dec. 4 shows smooth, unbroken pavement in the same location. So the video had to have been filmed after the 4th. Let’s take a look at this structure in the video. A satellite image from Dec. 7 shows the same building here completely destroyed. That means the video had to have been filmed before the satellite image was taken. The video also shows clear skies. Since Dec. 5 was overcast, it must have been filmed on the 6th. Not only that, but the length and direction of the shadows tell us the video was filmed around 9 a.m., showing the soldiers were at the hospital just a few hours before the Abu Salahs were killed. Beyond the hospital, we found the I.D.F. had taken up other positions within visibility and range of the shootings, including at these towers, where soldiers posted photos of themselves on social media taken around the time the family was killed. Other areas in range of the shootings were either occupied by displaced Palestinians or lack a direct line of sight to the family. So now let’s examine the footage of the bodies more closely. We spoke to a forensic pathologist and an expert in crime scene reconstruction to learn more about the shooting. While we weren’t able to find witnesses to the shooting itself, both experts said the state of the family’s bodies indicates the footage was filmed shortly after they were killed. Jonathyn Priest, the former head of the Denver Police Homicide Unit, said that because we see three of the Abu Salah family members huddled together, it, quote, “suggests a potential cowering or defensive position.” He said that this likely meant that they weren’t acting in any sort of aggressive way. He also said it’s likely that some of the shots that killed them were fired as they were already on the ground, attempting to shield each other from the gunfire. Both experts also agreed that all of the family’s wounds were to their upper bodies, which implies they were killed by aimed shots rather than random gunfire. Neither the I.D.F. nor witnesses we spoke to mentioned any fighting between Israeli troops and militants on the street when the family was killed. So that also rules out the possibility that they were killed in a crossfire. In some social media posts, at least one family member appeared to sympathize with Hamas before the Oct. 7 attacks, and Hanady did so too with the attacks themselves. But there’s no evidence these opinions played any role in the family’s killings. The I.D.F. told us that the killing of the Abu Salahs has been referred to military investigators who examine potential cases of misconduct by Israeli forces. But those findings are seldom made public, and human rights groups say that the Israeli military rarely penalizes soldiers for harming Palestinians. Despite our multiple requests for updates on the investigation, the I.D.F. said they had nothing to add. As for the white flag that Saadi Abu Salah carried, it’s a practice we’ve seen used by other civilians in Gaza to signal to I.D.F. troops that they’re not a threat. In several instances, civilians carrying such flags — [gunshot] have still been shot at, including three Israeli hostages using makeshift white flags to identify themselves to Israeli forces. The I.D.F. rarely comments on civilians carrying white flags who were killed, but admitted their mistake after the shooting of the hostages. The I.D.F. has also said Hamas militants have carried white flags as a way to blend in with civilians and hide their movements. The next morning, I.D.F. troops began conducting mass arrests of people left in the neighborhood. The military said those arrests were necessary to determine if Hamas fighters were hiding among civilians. Hanady and her surviving relatives left that day for Central Gaza, but the bodies of her family remained on the street. Several weeks later, Israeli forces withdrew from the area and residents ventured outside. A local reporter filmed video of what at first appeared to be piles of bulldozed rubble. But soon, one could see limbs, a head and a torso, with clothing and wounds matching the Abu Salahs. These were the family’s remains, bulldozed into a pile of garbage not far from where they were shot.
World
South Korea accuses the North of launching more trash balloons into its airspace
![South Korea accuses the North of launching more trash balloons into its airspace South Korea accuses the North of launching more trash balloons into its airspace](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/Korea-2.png)
South Korea on Thursday accused North Korea of launching more trash balloons across the border.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected around 420 balloons from Wednesday evening to early Thursday. Around 20 of them have been discovered so far in Seoul, the South Korean capital, and nearby Gyeonggi province.
Balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The balloons that landed were filled with paper waste, plastic bottles and other trash but contained no hazardous materials, officials said, accusing the North of launching more balloons into Thursday evening.
The joint chiefs advised people to report to the police or military if they see any fallen balloons and not to touch them. No major damage was immediately reported.
NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG UN REPORTEDLY ORDERED DOZENS OF OFFICIALS EXECUTED AFTER DEADLY FLOODS
Seoul’s city government issued text alerts Wednesday evening as the North Korean balloons began appearing over South Korean territory, advising people to stay indoors and to beware of objects dropping from the sky.
The two Koreas have been engaged in petty Cold War-style psychological warfare since at least March, with the North having flown thousands of balloons toward the South, filled with wastepaper, cloth scraps, cigarette butts and even manure.
![South Korea Koreas Tensions](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/Korea-1.png?ve=1&tl=1)
A visitor stands near a map of North Korea, in Paju, South Korea, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
North Korea says the balloons are in retaliation against South Korean civilian activists who fly anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border.
Trash carried by at least one North Korean balloon fell on the South Korean presidential compound in July, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key South Korean facilities. Officials said the balloon contained no dangerous materials and that no one was hurt.
South Korea has retaliated with front-line loudspeakers to blast propaganda messages and K-pop songs toward the North.
The tit-for-tat campaigns are adding to tensions fueled by North Korea’s growing nuclear ambitions and South Korea’s expansion of joint military exercises with the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
UTA Boards Uwe Boll Thriller ‘Run,’ Starring Amanda Plummer, James Russo (EXCLUSIVE)
![UTA Boards Uwe Boll Thriller ‘Run,’ Starring Amanda Plummer, James Russo (EXCLUSIVE) UTA Boards Uwe Boll Thriller ‘Run,’ Starring Amanda Plummer, James Russo (EXCLUSIVE)](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Boll-Run_┬⌐2024AxelStock_240424-22-von-47.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1)
UTA Independent Film Group has acquired Uwe Boll’s upcoming migrant crisis thriller “Run,” starring Emmy and Tony award winner Amanda Plummer (“Star Trek: Picard”) and James Russo (“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1”).
UTA will handle global sales for the pic, produced by Boll’s U.S.-Canadian shingle Event Film and his German outfit Boll Films.
UTA takes over from the film’s initial sales company, Stuttgart-based Kinostar, headed by “Run” executive producer Michael Roesch. The move is seen as an advantage for potential worldwide deals.
“We are thrilled to work with UTA for the global sales of ‘Run’ and can’t wait to introduce the movie to audiences around the world,” said Boll.
“We are excited that UTA loves the strong performances of our ensemble cast as much as we do, and we can’t wait to start working with them,” added Roesch.
The film’s cast includes Ulrich Thomsen and Oscar nominee Barkhad Abdi (“Captain Phillips”).
“Run” examines how the ongoing migrant waves crossing the Mediterranean Sea by boat to Europe are changing the lives of all involved — migrants (Abdi, Sammy Sheik and British newcomer Hannah Balogun), smugglers (Michel Quissi, Costas Mandylor), local police (Daniel Sauli), local business owners (Russo, Thomsen and Kristen Renton) and tourists (Plummer).
The film, edited by frequent Robert Rodriguez collaborator Ethan Maniquis, is currently in post-production at Tunnel Post in Santa Monica.
“Run,” Boll’s 36th feature, follows in the wake of his latest movie, “First Shift,” which also features Renton and Sauli. It was released in theaters and on demand via Quiver on Aug. 30.
The filmmaker’s works include high-profile video game adaptations like “In the Name of the King,” with Jason Statham, cult favorites, including “Postal” and “Rampage,” and fact-based pics “Attack on Darfur” and “1968 Tunnel Rats.”
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
Slingshot (2024) – Movie Review
-
World1 week ago
Swiss court convicts two executives of embezzling $1.8bn from 1MDB
-
World1 week ago
Commission mandarin flags convergence of digital with industry
-
News1 week ago
After months on the run, a murder suspect falls through the ceiling and into custody
-
World1 week ago
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 915
-
News1 week ago
Trump Vs Harris: The Battle Over Hot Mics Heats Up Ahead Of Key Debate
-
News1 week ago
The rise of the Pumpkin Spice Latte : It's Been a Minute
-
World1 week ago
Economic portfolios are key in talks to chose new EU commissioners