Georgia high school students took the stand Tuesday at the trial of Colin Gray, the father of teen suspect Colt Gray, describing the moments they were shot during the Sept. 4, 2024, attack at Apalachee High School northeast of Atlanta and recounting the fear and trauma that followed.
According to testimony, students described surviving the gunfire in their algebra class, watching classmates bleed, and worrying that they might die. They also told the court that more than a year later, the attack continued to affect them, including through counseling and persistent anxiety tied to school and home routines.
A ninth-grade girl testified that shortly after the gunfire began in her Algebra I class, she saw a hole in her wrist and began screaming. “I was also worried that I was going to die and how that would affect my parents because my dad has a heart problem,” she said.
The student testified that paramedics carried her out of the building and that, as she passed, she saw Colt Gray on the floor with his hands behind his back and screamed obscenities at him. “I remember yelling at him that we were kids, because we were kids,” she said, and her face and those of other students were not shown during a video livestream because of their young ages.
Other students told jurors the trauma they endured was not limited to physical wounds. One girl, who testified she sustained a gunshot wound to her left shoulder, said that seeing what she saw during the attack “just sticks with me … and not being able to trust certain people, trust people.”
Several students said they remained in counseling and described ongoing nightmares, fears of loud noises, and difficulty trusting people even in day-to-day life. One student testified, “Even to go on a walk around my neighborhood, anxiety would fill my head, and I feel like somebody driving past me would shoot me.”
The trial also includes testimony and arguments about what, prosecutors say, Colin Gray knew and when. Colt Gray was 14 at the time of the shooting and faces 55 counts, including murder in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault. Colin Gray faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors opened the case Monday, with Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith saying the case concerns “this defendant and his actions in allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that child was going to harm others.” Prosecutors argue the conduct amounts to cruelty to children under Georgia law; second-degree murder, they said, is defined in part by causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children.
The defense, through attorney Brian Hobbs, disputed the prosecution’s theory, saying the facts show criminal liability does not extend to what the father could not see. “That’s the difference between tragedy and criminal liability,” Hobbs said. “You cannot hold someone criminally responsible for failing to predict what was intentionally hidden from them.”
Smith told the jury that investigators later pursued multiple warning-related leads, including what he said was evidence that Colt Gray made threatening searches. Smith said prosecutors allege that in September 2021, Colt Gray used a school computer to search the phrase, “how to kill your dad,” after which school resource officers were sent to the home but the concern was treated as a “misunderstanding.”
Smith also said that 16 months before the shooting, law enforcement acted on a tip from the FBI after a shooting threat was made online involving an elementary school. According to Smith, the threat was traced to a computer at the Gray family’s home, and Colin Gray was told about it and was asked whether his son had access to guns.
Smith said Colin Gray replied that he and his son “take this school shooting stuff very seriously,” and that Colt Gray denied making the threat and said his online account had been hacked. Smith said that later, at Christmas, Colin Gray gave Colt Gray the gun as a gift and continued buying accessories, including “a lot of ammunition.”
Prosecutors also said they had evidence that the teen’s fascination with school shooters was known within the household, citing, among other things, discussion of Colt Gray’s interest in Nikolas Cruz, who carried out the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack in Parkland, Florida. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that Colt Gray’s parents discussed his fascination but decided it was in a joking context rather than a serious threat, the AP report said.
Smith also pointed to a text message he said Colin Gray received three weeks before the shooting, writing that Colt Gray messaged: “Whenever something happens, just know the blood is on your hands.” Smith said Colin Gray also was aware, investigators alleged, that the teen’s mental health had deteriorated and that Colt Gray sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, including writing that he did not know what to do as anger and anxiety increased.
As testimony continued, the case remained focused on the prosecution’s contention that Colt Gray’s access to the weapon and the warnings that preceded the attack should be enough for criminal responsibility, and on the defense’s argument that planning and timing were concealed from the father.