Father and Son Indicted on Murder Charges for Mass School Shooting in Georgia
A grand jury in Georgia on Oct. 17 indicted a father and his son on murder charges for a mass shooting that took place earlier this year.
Georgia media outlets reported that the Barrow County grand jury meeting in Winder indicted Colt Gray, 14, on a total of 55 counts, including four counts of malice murder, and his father, Colin Gray, on 29 counts, including second-degree murder.
Deputy court clerk Missy Headrick confirmed that Colt and Colin Gray have been indicted but said the clerk's office is still processing the documents and that they likely will not be available to the public until Friday.
Both are scheduled to appear for arraignment on Nov. 21, when each will formally enter a plea. Colin Gray is being held in the Barrow County jail. Colt Gray is charged as an adult but is being held in a juvenile detention center in Gainesville. Neither has sought to be released on bail and their lawyers have previously declined comment.
The mass shooting at the school, which is near Atlanta, also left nine others wounded.
Murder charges were previously brought by Jackson County District Attorney Brad Smith against Colt Gray and his father, both of whom were arrested shortly after the shooting.
Georgia has the death penalty for some murders, but the killer must be at least 17 years old to be sentenced to death.
Malice murder carries up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Second-degree murder carries up to 30 years in prison.
Investigators testified this week during a preliminary hearing for Colin Gray that Colt Gray carried a semiautomatic assault-style rifle on the school bus on the morning of the shooting, with the barrel sticking out of his book bag, wrapped up in a poster board. They say the boy left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle before shooting people in a classroom and hallways.
Investigators have said Colt Gray carefully plotted the shooting at the 1,900-student high school, where he enrolled in August. A notebook identified as being his containing step-by-step handwritten instructions, a diagram of the second-period classroom, and an estimate that he could kill as many as 26 people.
Law enforcement officers confronted Colt Gray and he surrendered, according to authorities.
Smith told the courtroom that Colin Gray had primary custody of Colt, knew of his son's obsession with school shooters, and was aware of his son's mental issues but still provided both the guns and ammunition that the boy used in the shooting.
Colt Gray told deputies he did not make any school shooting threats.
Colin Gray is the first parent of a school shooting suspect to be charged in Georgia history. Prosecutors in the United States have just recently begun charging parents in some mass shootings, with Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley being the first to be convicted earlier this year for failing to secure a gun at home and not responding appropriately when their son, Ethan Crumbley, exhibited mental issues. Ethan Crumbley killed four students at a high school in Michigan in 2021.
