GBI: Suspected Winder, Georgia, school shooter made threats before
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said the suspected Georgia school shooter had been previously investigated for threats to commit school violence.
Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old boy who killed four people and wounded nine more at his Georgia high school, has been arrested, according to a social media post from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Gray, 54, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
On Wednesday his son, Colt Gray, brought an “AR-platform-type weapon” that Colin had bought for him to Apalachee High School in Winder, near Atlanta, Georgia and opened fire. Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, were fatally shot. Eight other students and one teacher were injured.
Colt Gray faces four counts of felony murder and “additional charges are expected,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
It is rare to see parents or guardians of shooters facing charges of their own, but the practice has been gradually increasing. Last year, James and Jennifer Crumbley became the first parents in America to be held criminally responsible in a mass shooting committed by their child. They were each sentenced to 10-15 years in prison on four counts each of involuntary manslaughter for their negligence and “lack of responsibility” in the 2021 Oxford High School mass shooting committed by their son, Ethan.
Colin Gray’s charges stem from him “knowingly allowing” his son to have a weapon, according to GBI Director Chris Hosey at a press conference. Gray had already told investigators that he bought the weapon used in the killings as a holiday present for Colt.
Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigations followed up on tips that a then-13-year-old boy had made online threats about a school shooting. At the time, Colin Gray said he had hunting guns in the house but his son did not have unsupervised access to them.
“At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels,” the FBI said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
Parents rarely charged for gun violence by minors
Penalties for parents or guardians in the wake of shootings by minors are extremely rare. The prosecution in the Crumbleys cases went to great lengths to establish that they ignored their then-15-year-old son’s mental health struggles and could have prevented the massacre by using a gun lock, keeping it in a locked safe, or by not buying him the gun in the first place instead of getting him help.
“I am by no means saying that an active shooter situation should always result in a criminal prosecution against parents. But the facts of this case are so egregious,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said at a news conference.
Other attempts to hold parents and guardians responsible for the violent actions of children in their care include:
In states with culpable negligence laws, such as Florida, parents and guardians can be charged for deaths and injuries caused by unsecured weapons.
What are Georgia’s gun laws?
Under Georgia’s gun laws, which Everytown Research calls “some of the weakest gun laws in the country,” it is illegal for a minor to possess a handgun or for a person to furnish a handgun to a minor. Federal law prohibits anyone from selling shotguns, rifles, or ammunition for them to anyone under 18.
Minors are permitted to possess pistols or revolvers under certain specified and monitored activities and there are provisions against a parent or legal guardian allowing a minor to possess a pistol or revolver if the adult “is aware of a substantial risk that such minor will use a pistol or revolver to commit a felony offense” or if the minor has been convicted of a violent felony or misdemeanor. Violation can mean a felony conviction, a fine of up to $5,000 and 3-5 years in prison.
However, Georgia has no age limit for possessing a rifle or shotgun, and no child access prevention (CAP) laws or secure storage laws that would require firearms to be securely stored unloaded, away from ammunition and safe from access to unsupervised minors, according to Giffords Law Center.
The state also does not have a “red flag” law, which would allow law enforcement to confiscate firearms from someone deemed a threat.
Georgia is an open carry state. Georgia allows permitless carry for shotguns, rifles or handguns and allows guns in restaurants, parks, historic sites and recreation areas, according to the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. Permits are also not necessary for concealed carry in most public spaces. Background checks are not required for private sales.
Weapons are prohibited in schools and at school functions, although there is a wide array of exemptions listed such as law enforcement, participants in shooting events or firearm training courses, campus security officers, authorized teachers, parents picking up or dropping off children, people who live or work within the school safety zone, judges, attorneys, and the State Attorney General. In 2017, the state passed a law requiring colleges and universities to allow guns on campus.
There is no federal law addressing child access to guns, according to the Giffords Law Center.