1 of 2 | Colt Gray, the 14-year-old charged with the murder of four people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., on Sept. 4, 2024, is pictured in his booking photo. A jury found his father, Colin Gray, guilty. He bought Colt the gun he allegedly used in the shooting. File Photo via Barrow County Sheriff’s Office/UPI | License Photo
A jury found the father of an alleged school shooter in Georgia guilty on Tuesday of 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Colin Gray, 55, could get up to 180 years in prison for buying his son Colt Gray the gun that was allegedly used to kill four people at Apalachee High School in 2024.
Gray, 55, gifted his son an AR-style rifle after being warned by sheriff’s deputies that his son, Colt Gray, had possibly threatened an attack on his school. The deputies could never prove the threat was posted by Colt.
In 2024, Colt Gray, then 14, allegedly killed two teachers and two students and injured nine others at the school in Winder, Ga., with a gun his father bought him for Christmas.
Closing arguments took place Monday in the Colin Gray case. Prosecutors argued that he should be held accountable for giving his son the gun, and defense attorneys argue that he had no idea his son would commit such violence.
The prosecution said that Colin Gray knew what could happen.
“Every person in this community wanted to know one thing: Who did this and how did it happen? Everyone except for that man, the defendant Colin Gray. He was not asking that question because he knew exactly who had done this and how this happened,” the prosecutor said in closing arguments.
“The blood is on their hands,” the prosecutors said. They said there were “months and months and years of warning signs” of the violence, including the teen’s fascination with school shooters.
“The defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb waiting to go off, and instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator,” the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Jimmy Berry said the arguments weren’t enough to convict Colin Gray.
“Georgia law does not require a gun be locked up or ammunition be locked up. So that’s not a criminal act. Having a gun in the house, having ammunition in the house, is not a criminal act,” he said.
Berry argued that the blame should be on Colt Gray, whom he said is manipulative and smart.
“Everybody wants to see somebody go to jail other than this young man right here,” he said, pointing to a picture of Colt Gray. “This is the person who went into the high school and shot and killed four people he didn’t even know and injured scores of others. This is the person who needs to be punished. He made a conscious decision to do this — a secretive decision.”
Berry said Colt never told his father that he wanted to do a school shooting.
“How’s he supposed to get this?” he asked the jury. “Through osmosis? People don’t tell him things, how is he supposed to know?”
Colt Gray is awaiting trial on 55 charges, including murder and aggravated assault.
The teachers killed were Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irmie, and the students were Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn.
Winder is about an hour northeast of Atlanta and about 20 minutes from Athens.
The parents of some other alleged school shooters have also faced charges.
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Michigan’s Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, were sentenced to 10-15 years in prison for four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Ethan Crumbley killed four students in the attack on Nov. 30, 2021. He is serving life in prison.
Robert E. Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct in Waukegan, Ill., after his son Robert Crimo III killed seven people and injured 40 at a Fourth of July parade in 2023. The father was sentenced to 60 days in jail and 24 months of probation.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hold a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday. Trump was meeting with Merz just days after the United States and Israel launched widespread attacks on Iran, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders in airstrikes across the region. Photo by Samuel Corum/UPI | License Photo
