The mother of a teenager suspected of killing four people in a Georgia school shooting called the school shortly before the incident to warn of the threat posed by her son, the attacker's aunt and grandfather said. She did so after receiving a short text message from her son.
Down the shooting at Apalachee School in Georgia that left four deadoccurred Wednesday morning. The suspect in the attack is Colt Gray, a 14-year-old high school student. He was arrested and will be tried as an adult.
The victims of the attacker were 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and two math teachers – 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall and 53-year-old Christina Irimie. Nine injured people were also taken to hospital – eight students and one teacher.
Wednesday's attack was the forty-fifth and deadliest school shooting in the city this calendar year. USA.
School Call Before Shooting
On Saturday, CNN reported, citing the boy's family, that the student's mother called Apalachee High School shortly before the shooting to warn him after receiving an alarming text message. Colt Gray sent a text message to his mother, Marcee, early in the morning saying, “I'm sorry, mom,” the attacker's grandfather told the New York Post.
Colt Gray PAP/EPA/BARROW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE / HANDOUT HANDOUT
The mother then called the school to report an unspecified “extreme threat” involving Colt sometime before the shooting began, said the boy's aunt, Annie Brown.
The Washington Post reported that the 10-minute call was made from Marcee Gray's phone to the school at 9:50 a.m. Police were notified of the shooting at about 10:20 a.m.
Marcee Gray confirmed the call to the Journal, which reported that the woman “declined to explain what prompted her to call the school to warn them, but said she shared the information with law enforcement.”
The boy's mother apologized for the “absolutely horrific” shooting. “I am deeply, deeply sorry and I cannot fathom the pain and suffering that they are going through right now,” she told the Washington Post.
Flowers in front of the school where the shooting took place PAP/EPA/ERIK S. LESSER
Barrow County Sheriff Jude Smith previously said he was not aware of any calls to the school prior to the shooting. CNN reached out to him for comment but did not hear back by the time this article was published.
Christmas gift for my son
Colin Gray, the father of the attacker, was arrested on Thursday on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Director Chris Hosey said the charges against the perpetrator's father stem from the fact that the 54-year-old man knowingly allowed his son to possess a gun.
Colin Gray told investigators this week that he bought the gun used in the school shootings as a Christmas present for his son, purchasing the AR-15-style rifle at a local gun shop in December 2023, according to two law enforcement sources cited by CNN.
Colin Gray. Photo courtesy of Barrow County Sheriff's Office Reuters
“The timing of the gun purchase, according to the teen's father, would suggest it was purchased several months after authorities first contacted Gray and his family to investigate threats of school shootings that the then-13-year-old had posted on social media. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office closed the investigation at that time because the threat had not been confirmed,” CNN reported.
Main image source: ERIK S. LESSER/PAP/EPA