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WINDER, Ga. (AP) — The trial concerning a man whose teenage son allegedly took the lives of two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school is set to begin with opening statements on Monday.
This case is part of a broader effort across the nation to hold parents accountable when their children are implicated in deadly shootings. Colin Gray is facing 29 charges, which include two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, along with multiple counts of second-degree cruelty to children, all related to the tragic incident at Apalachee High School in Winder.
The indictment claims Gray provided his son, Colt, with access to firearms and ammunition despite being “sufficiently warned” about the potential danger Colt posed to others. Prosecutors contend this constitutes child cruelty, while second-degree murder in Georgia involves causing a child’s death through such acts of cruelty.
The trial is taking place in Winder, located in Barrow County, where the shooting occurred. Although the defense requested a change of venue due to extensive pretrial media coverage, prosecutors concurred, but the judge opted to keep the trial in Winder, instead selecting jurors from neighboring Hall County. Jury selection was completed last week.
Authorities have indicated that Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time, meticulously orchestrated the shooting on September 4, 2024, at the school, which serves approximately 1,900 students and is situated northeast of Atlanta.
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.