The father of the 14-year-old accused of shooting and killing two teachers and two students was arrested in connection to the deadly Georgia school shooting that rocked the small community, investigators announced Thursday evening.
The teen suspect's father, Colin Gray, was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
It was unclear Thursday who was representing the Grays. While investigators provided few details about the father's alleged role in the shooting, they acknowledged that the sheriff's office visited the family home in Jefferson, Georgia, in May 2023 to respond to reports that the then-13-year-old allegedly made threats to shoot up the local public middle school on the social media app Discord. Colin Gray said that his son "had some problems" at his previous middle school but that it had "gotten a lot better" since he changed schools.
The father also told investigators during that visit that he had hunting rifles in the house, adding, "Colt is allowed to use them when supervised but does not have unfettered access to them." In addition, the teen denied making mass shooting threats on Discord, saying he "had never made any comments about shooting up a school or heard anyone talking about it."
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The director of the GBI, Chris Hosey, said Thursday that this was a "difficult" time for the community. "You all have likely seen reports of incidents of other students making threats today at various schools around our state. In each of these incidents, police law enforcement took charges, and they made arrests, acted very swiftly as we take incidents like this very seriously across this state."
Hosey encouraged the community to "come together and remain vigilant" in the wake of the deadly mass shooting.
"This is a time for all of us as a community and a state, to come together and remain vigilant," he said. "Students must be supported and encouraged here in this community and across the state to contact a member of their school faculty with any and all concerns of suspicious activity that they may see."
"Local, state and federal law enforcement will continue to work together around the clock in relation to this incident here and any other incidents that come up around this state that raise concern for the safety of our students, faculty and citizens here in the State of Georgia."
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith announced that of the nine injured, which included 2 teachers and 7 students, all would make a full recovery.
Smith implored the audience to "lift up our community."
"Please keep these children, these teachers," he said. "We call them teachers, but I call them heroes."
