New reports paint a picture of the 14-year-old accused of killing four people and wounding nine others at a Georgia school as a troubled teen.
Annie Brown of Florida, who said she is the aunt of accused Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, said the teen was “begging for months” for mental health help, according to The Washington Post.
He “was begging for help from everybody around him,” she said. “The adults around him failed him.”
Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Gray and his family had “previous contacts” with the local child services department.
JUST IN: The mug shot of 14-year-old Colt Gray, the accused #Apalachee High School shooter. pic.twitter.com/Bv1cVhke18
— Courtney Bryant (@CourtneyDBryant) September 5, 2024
Gray and his father were interviewed in May 2023 in response to an online threat about a school shooting that was posted on the social media platform Discord. Although officials initially traced the Discord account to Colt Gray, they did not press charges because they could not substantiate that Colt Gray posted the threat.
At that time, Colt Gray’s father said he and his wife split up after the family was evicted. Colt had “some problems” at a middle school he formerly attended, but his life had “gotten a lot better” after he changed schools.
Colt Gray has been charged with four felony counts of murder, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Colt gray the 14 year old shooter’s identity has been officially confirmed!
He shot and killed 4 people,
Injured 9!This is Colt’s 2022 yearbook photo.
Winder, Georgia at
Apalachee High School. pic.twitter.com/5MidK6cMrq— Jakey (@JacobBaker613) September 5, 2024
A report in The New York Times said that Colin Gray, the suspect’s father, said Colt was picked on at school.
The report said that during the May 2023 interview with authorities, Colin Gray said that his son’s “finals were last week, and that was the last thing on his mind,” the father said.
The Times also reported that during a search of Colt Gray’s room Wednesday, officials found evidence he was interested in past school shootings, with a focus on the 2018 incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed.
Students said the shooting came in the middle of classes.
“I heard gunshots outside my classroom and people screaming, people begging not to get shot,” student Macey Right, 14, said, according to CNN. “And then people sitting beside me (were) just shaking and crying.”
Classmate Lyela Sayarath said Colt Gray left his Algebra 1 class at around 9:45 a.m. When he wanted to return, a student would not let him in, having apparently spotted him holding a gun.
“I think he wanted to come to us first,” Sayarath said.
Instead, another room was picked, Sayarath said, “and you hear about 10 to 15 rounds back-to-back.”
In the attack, students, Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, were killed. Math teacher Christina Irimie, 53, and math teacher and assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall, 39, were also killed.
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