Father Arrested After Son’s School Shooting in Georgia Leaves Four Dead, Nine Injured

On Thursday, Georgia state authorities arrested the father of a 14-year-old boy suspected of carrying out a tragic school shooting that killed four people and injured nine others at Apalachee High School in Winder. Officials said the father, Colin Gray, 54, knowingly allowed his son to possess the weapon used in the massacre.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced that Colin Gray was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children. Chris Hosey, director of the GBI, said, “These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon.”

Colt Gray, 14, was charged with four counts of felony murder and is set to be tried as an adult. His arraignment is scheduled for Friday morning, where he will appear before a Georgia Superior Court judge via video from Barrow County.

The younger Gray allegedly used a semi-automatic rifle, described as an “AR platform style weapon,” to carry out the attack. The victims of the shooting included two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, as well as two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Authorities are still investigating how the teen came into possession of the weapon, though the details remain unclear.

The incident, which marks the first mass shooting on a U.S. campus this school year, has reignited national debates surrounding gun control and school safety. Grieving communities and the nation at large are once again confronted with the devastating aftermath of such violence.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said two teachers and seven students were injured in the attack, some of whom have already been discharged from the hospital. “The nine injured, I am very happy to say, will make a full recovery,” Smith stated during a press conference.

The events at Apalachee High School unfolded in Winder, a city of approximately 18,000 people located about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. With the 2023 school year recently underway, the tragedy has deeply shaken the local community.

The decision to arrest and charge the father, Colin Gray, reflects a shift in legal approaches to school shootings in the United States. Holding parents accountable for their children’s actions is not a common legal strategy, but it may become more frequent as officials look for new ways to address the epidemic of school shootings.

The precedent for charging parents in school shootings was set earlier this year in Michigan, where the parents of a teenager convicted of killing four classmates were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in prison. In that case, Jennifer and James Crumbley were convicted of manslaughter after their son, Ethan, committed the murders at Oxford High School in 2021. This was the first time that parents were held legally responsible for their child’s role in a school shooting, a significant step toward holding gun-owning parents more accountable.

Gun safety advocates see these cases as crucial milestones in ensuring parents take responsibility for securing firearms in their homes. Studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reveal that around 75% of school shooters obtain their weapons from their own homes, often through unlocked or unsecured firearms.

In the case of the Gray family, both father and son were previously interviewed by law enforcement in May 2023 in relation to online threats made on the social media platform Discord about carrying out a school shooting. Those threats had been flagged by officials in a neighboring county. However, according to investigators, both Grays denied making the threats, and the case was closed after authorities found no conclusive evidence linking them to the Discord account.

At the time, Colin Gray told officials from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department that while he owned hunting guns, they were securely locked in a safe, and his son did not have access to them. This assertion led investigators to close the case without pursuing further action. Sheriff Janis Mangum of Jackson County explained, “This case was worked, and at the time the boy was 13, and it wasn’t enough to substantiate. If we get a judge’s order or we charge somebody, we take firearms for safekeeping.”

Despite this earlier investigation, Wednesday’s attack at Apalachee High School occurred, bringing renewed scrutiny to the family’s access to firearms. Law enforcement officials are now investigating whether Colin Gray’s actions in allowing his son to access the gun contributed to the tragedy.

The shooting has once again drawn attention to the widespread and long-standing problem of gun violence in schools across the United States. In the last two decades, there have been hundreds of shootings at schools and colleges, resulting in numerous casualties. These incidents have fueled ongoing debates over gun control and the Second Amendment, which grants U.S. citizens the right to bear arms.

Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School was the first planned attack at a U.S. school this fall, according to David Riedman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database. Riedman pointed out that while some students in the United States have just started their school year, others, like those at Apalachee, had been back in class for weeks before the shooting occurred.

The rise in school shootings has placed increasing pressure on lawmakers to enact stronger gun control measures, though the issue remains politically divisive. Supporters of stricter gun laws argue that such measures are necessary to prevent future tragedies, while opponents emphasize the constitutional right to bear arms.

The case in Georgia, much like the earlier case in Michigan, may signal a growing trend of holding parents legally accountable when they fail to take necessary precautions to prevent their children from accessing firearms. For the families of the victims, however, such legal action offers little solace in the face of their immense loss.

The community of Winder is left mourning the senseless deaths of two young students and two educators, while those injured in the attack continue to recover. As investigators work to uncover more details about the weapon used and the motive behind the attack, the nation is once again reminded of the devastating toll that gun violence in schools can exact.