Trial gets underway for a man whose son is accused in high school shooting
Opening statements began Monday in the trial of Colin Gray, the father of Colt Gray, who is accused of killing two students and two teachers in the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Prosecutors argued that the case is about what Colin Gray allegedly did after learning of concerning behavior and threats involving his son. In his opening statement, Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said the matter was “not a case about holding parents accountable for what their children do,” but instead concerned what Smith said was Colin Gray’s “actions in allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that that child was going to harm others.”
Smith told jurors that the charges include two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and numerous counts of second-degree cruelty to children. Prosecutors said Georgia law defines second-degree murder in this context as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children.
Investigators have said Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time, carefully planned the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting. Smith said Colt Gray brought a semiautomatic rifle to school with the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, then moved from a second-period class to a bathroom before emerging with the gun and shooting people in a classroom and hallways.
The defense, through Brian Hobbs, argued that Colin Gray cannot be held criminally responsible for what the prosecution characterized as his inaction because the planning and timing were hidden. Hobbs said the shooting’s planning and timing “were hidden by Colt Gray from his father,” adding: “That’s the difference between tragedy and criminal liability. You cannot hold someone criminally responsible for failing to predict what was intentionally hidden from them.”
Smith also described a series of warnings and law enforcement actions that preceded the shooting, including what Smith said was a September 2021 search using a school computer for the phrase “how to kill your dad.” Smith said school resource officers were then sent to the home, but that it was determined to be a “misunderstanding,” and Smith told the jury about another incident in May 2023 in which law enforcement acted on a tip from the FBI after an online shooting threat involving an elementary school. Smith said the threat was traced to a computer at Gray’s home, and that Colin Gray was told about the threat and asked whether his son had access to guns.
Smith told jurors that Colin Gray responded that he and his son “take this school shooting stuff very seriously.” Smith also said Colt Gray denied making the threat and told investigators his online account had been hacked. The prosecution said Colin Gray continued to give Colt Gray access to a gun after that, including by giving him the weapon as a gift that Christmas and then continuing to buy accessories, including “a lot of ammunition.”
Prosecutors also presented evidence they said showed Colin Gray knew of his son’s fixation on school shooters and that his mental health had deteriorated. Smith said Colin Gray knew Colt Gray was obsessed with school shooters, and that prosecutors referenced Colt Gray’s alleged shrine to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified, Smith said, that Colt Gray’s parents discussed their son’s fascination but decided it was in a joking context and not a serious issue.
Smith said Colt Gray also sent a text about responsibility in the weeks before the shooting—“Whenever something happens, just know the blood is on your hands,” Smith told jurors. Smith said investigators testified that Colin Gray was aware his son had sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting and that Colin Gray wrote about the family’s struggles, including: “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.”
Smith said prosecutors allege Colin Gray never followed through on concerns about getting his son admitted to an in-patient facility. He also described an exchange after the shooting when, Smith said, Colin Gray met law enforcement at the home in the garage and “without any prompting, he blurts out, ‘I knew it,’” after his daughter—who was in lockdown at a middle school—texted him about the shooting at Apalachee High School.
The trial is being held in Winder, in Barrow County, where the shooting happened. The defense had asked for a change of venue because of pretrial publicity, and prosecutors agreed; a judge kept the trial in Winder but decided to bring in jurors from nearby Hall County, and jurors were selected last week.