Opening Statements Set to Begin in Trial of Georgia School Shooting Suspect’s Father

WINDER, Ga. – On Monday, the courtroom will hear opening statements in a significant trial involving a father whose teenage son is accused of a tragic shooting at a Georgia high school, which resulted in the deaths of two students and two teachers in September 2024.

This trial is part of a broader legal trend where authorities are attempting to hold parents accountable when their children are implicated in deadly shootings. Colin Gray is facing 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and multiple charges of second-degree cruelty to children, all linked to the incident at Apalachee High School in Winder.

According to the indictment, Gray allegedly provided his son, Colt, with access to firearms and ammunition despite being warned that Colt posed a threat to others’ safety. Prosecutors contend that this constitutes child cruelty, and under Georgia law, second-degree murder can be charged when a child’s death is caused by such cruelty.

The trial is set in Barrow County, where the shooting occurred. Although the defense requested a venue change due to significant media attention, the judge opted to keep the trial in Winder and instead bring in jurors from nearby Hall County. Jury selection was completed last week.

Authorities have reported that Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time, meticulously planned the shooting on September 4, 2024, at the school located northeast of Atlanta, which has an enrollment of 1,900 students.

With a semiautomatic rifle in his book bag, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, he boarded the school bus, investigators said. He left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the gun and then shot people in a classroom and hallways, they said.

An investigator testified at a pretrial hearing that Colin Gray had given his son the gun as a gift the Christmas before the shooting and bought a larger magazine so the weapon could hold more rounds.

Colin Gray knew his son was obsessed with school shooters, even having a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, prosecutors have said. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the teen’s parents had discussed their son’s fascination with school shooters but decided that it was in a joking context and not a serious issue.

Colin Gray was also aware his son’s mental health had deteriorated and had sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, an investigator testified.

“We have had a very difficult past couple of years and he needs help. Anger, anxiety, quick to be volatile. I don’t know what to do,” Colin Gray wrote about his son.