The Georgia suspect’s father knew his son was obsessed with school shooters

WINDER, Georgia – The father of a teenager charged in a deadly Georgia school shooting was aware that his son was obsessed with school shootings and even had a shrine above his home computer to the shooter in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, massacre, prosecutors said at a Wednesday court hearing.

Colin Gray had also given his son Colt the assault weapon used in the shooting that killed four people at Apalachee High School as a Christmas present and was aware that his son’s mental health was changing in the weeks leading up to the shooting The shooting had worsened, investigators testified.

14-year-old Colt Gray, charged with four counts of murder, is accused of using the gun to kill two classmates and two teachers on Sept. 4 at a high school in Winder, outside Atlanta. Since he is a juvenile, the maximum penalty he would face would be life in prison without parole.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Kelsey Ward said in court Wednesday that Colin Gray, 54, asked his son who the people were in the pictures hanging on his wall. One of them, Colt told his father, was Nikolas Cruz, the gunman in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Investigators said they also found a notebook that Colt left behind at the school, with “hallway” and “classroom” written at the top of one page.

In the hallway column it says: “I assume 3 to 4 dead.” Injured? 4 to 5,” GBI agent Lucas Beyer testified. “Under the “Classroom” column it says: 15 to 17 people killed, injured? 2 to 3.”

Ward interviewed several family members, including Colt’s mother, Marcee Gray.

“She said that his fascination with guns had increased significantly over the last year,” Ward testified.

At one point, Colt asked his father to buy him an all-black “shooter mask,” jokingly saying, “I need to get my school shooter outfit ready, just kidding,” Ward said.

Colt’s parents discussed their son’s fascination with school shooters but concluded it was just a joke and not a serious problem, Ward said.

The Christmas before the shooting, Colin Gray bought the gun for his son, Barrow County sheriff’s investigator Jason Smith testified. Colt later asked his father for a larger magazine for the gun so it could hold more rounds, and his father agreed, Smith said. Colin Gray also purchased the ammunition, Smith said.

Colin Gray was charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder in connection with the shooting. Arrest warrants said he caused the deaths of others “by giving Colt Gray a firearm knowing he posed a danger to himself and others.”

Gray’s attorneys, Jimmy Berry and Brian Hobbs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Wednesday. In court on Wednesday they mainly asked questions of the witnesses and did not provide any information about their client’s behavior.

The judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors met the standard to continue their case against the father, and the case will now move to the Supreme Court.

The charges came five months after Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first to be convicted in a mass shooting at a U.S. school. They were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to obtain a firearm at home and for remaining indifferent to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health before he killed four students in 2021. The Georgia shooting has also reignited debate over safe gun storage laws and prompted other parents to figure out how to talk to their children about school shootings and trauma.

Colt Gray denied threatening a school shooting when authorities questioned him last year about a threatening social media post, a previous sheriff’s office report said. Conflicting evidence about the post’s origins meant investigators were unable to arrest anyone, the report said. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the May 2023 report and found nothing that would have warranted charges at that time.