Colin Gray’s fate is in the hands of a jury after prosecutors and defense attorneys delivered closing arguments in a Barrow County trial connected to the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray, then 14, is accused of bringing a rifle Colin Gray gave him for Christmas into the school and killing two students and two teachers, while wounding many others.
In her closing argument, Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told jurors that Colin Gray had “sufficient warning” after seeing what she described as signs of his son’s mental deterioration, violence, and school shooter obsession. Brooks said the father’s choices made the attack more likely, telling jurors that “After seeing sign after sign of his son’s deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school shooter obsession, the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off,” adding, “And instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator.”
Defense attorney Jimmy Berry agreed with prosecutors on what he called the key issue, saying “That’s real important because that really is the key to this case, is what did he know?” Berry pressed the jurors to focus on foreseeability and what Colin Gray knew about what the rifle would be used for. In his argument, Berry asked jurors about whether the father knew that Colt Gray would carry out the killings, saying: “Did he know that Colt would do this?”
Brooks and Berry both drew sharp attention to how the case turns on warnings and knowledge, but they emphasized different conclusions. Prosecutors said the father should have been held responsible for giving Colt Gray the weapon despite threats and warning signs that prosecutors characterized as showing mental instability. The defense’s framing was that even if Colin Gray had concerns about Colt Gray, the specific outcome at school was not something anyone could predict.
Colt Gray faces 55 counts, including murder, in the deaths of four people, and prosecutors also brought 25 counts of aggravated assault. Colin Gray faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Trial proceedings began about three weeks earlier with jury selection, and deliberations were expected to start Tuesday morning, according to the closing-argument coverage.
Both sides used images in an effort to shape how jurors assessed the events that unfolded during a brief span of gunfire. Brooks showed photos of teachers and students closing classroom doors to protect students and comforting teenagers wounded during what prosecutors described as 41 seconds of gunfire. She told jurors that “Those 41 seconds forever altered the lives of the students of Apalachee High School, their parents and everyone in this community.”
Berry, in contrast, urged jurors to rely on facts rather than emotion when deciding. In his closing, Berry held up a picture of Colt Gray and said it was “this is the person who went into the high school and shot and killed four people he didn’t even know and injured scores of others.” Berry argued further that the defendant “made a conscious decision to do this,” characterizing it as “a secretive decision,” and urged punishment for that conduct.
Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Colt Gray carrying the rifle in a backpack concealed from others and arriving at school with the weapon. The prosecution argued that the video depicts Colt Gray getting on a school bus with a backpack that concealed the rifle and then entering the school, walking down hallways past dozens of students and some employees who did not take notice of the large pack. Prosecutors also said the footage showed Colt Gray beginning classes and later spending several minutes in a bathroom moments before the shooting.
The trial also included testimony about what prosecutors described as a “shrine” to Nikolas Cruz, a Florida school shooter convicted in the 2018 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. According to the reporting, Marcee Gray, Colt Gray’s mother, testified this week about her urging Colin Gray to lock up guns so their son could not access them, and she testified at Colin Gray’s trial that she was not charged with any crimes. The reporting also said witnesses testified that, in the days before the school shooting, Colt Gray kept the gun in his bedroom, and the parents had been separated for much of the time leading up to the attack.