Teen and father face murder charges after Georgia high school shooting

A grand jury in Georgia has indicted a father and son for their roles in a deadly mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder.

The incident, which occurred on September 4 and left four people dead and several others injured, left the Barrow County community in shock and despair.

14-year-old Colt Gray was charged as an adult with 55 counts, including four counts of murder and 25 counts of aggravated assault.

His father, Colin Gray, 54, faces 29 charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Both father and son are scheduled to be arraigned on November 21st.

The shooting resulted in the deaths of two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14.

Seven other students and a teacher were injured, some of them critically.

Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith, who is leading the prosecution, told reporters that this case presented some unique challenges.

“Every person, every child in this school was a victim,” Smith said.

“Children in all other schools that were in lockdown during this period were victims. Parents who were afraid of where their children were.”

Colin Gray’s second-degree murder charge is an unusual feature in Georgia law and is brought when the death of a child occurs in a case of cruelty to children.

The indictment accuses Gray of giving his son access to weapons and ammunition even though he was warned about the dangers.

Investigators said Gray ignored repeated signs of his son’s deteriorating mental health and his fascination with violence.

They said the teenager carefully planned the attack by carrying a semi-automatic rifle onto the school bus and concealing it with a billboard.

A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that Colt Gray carried a diagram of his second-period classroom and estimated that he could kill up to 26 people and injure up to 13 others. “I’ll be surprised if I make it this far,” he wrote.

Colt Gray’s interest in previous school shootings had been noticed by his parents.

His mother, Marcee Gray, told investigators she argued with Colin Gray and urged him to secure his guns.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Kelsey Ward claims that Colin bought her son shooting supplies and ammunition instead of taking action.

Ward testified that Colt created a “shrine” to school shooters, including a picture of Nikolas Cruz, the gunman responsible for the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Still, Colt’s parents dismissed the behavior as a “joke” and chose not to intervene.

Further testimony revealed that Colt’s mother had attempted to have her son committed to a psychiatric facility just days before the shooting.

However, the plan collapsed after a dispute between Colt’s parents over whether to confiscate the family’s weapons.

District Attorney Smith said the responsibility for preventing such a tragedy extends to the home.

The Grays’ case echoes another high-profile school shooting in Michigan, in which Jennifer and James Crumbley were convicted of failing to confiscate a firearm that was later used by their son in a school attack.

They were sentenced to at least ten years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

As the trial date approaches, both Colt and Colin Gray remain in custody. Neither has applied for bail. Their lawyers have not yet commented publicly.

This article contains reporting from The Associated Press