It was just two people, a young man and his father, since then eviction The previous year ended with the boy’s parents parting ways in a separation that fractured the whole family.
That’s what Colin Gray to a Georgia A sheriff’s investigator who came to her door in May 2023 asked if an online threat to shoot up the school had been posted by her son, Colt.
“I don’t know anything about him saying (expletive) like that,” Gray said Jackson County sheriff’s investigator Daniel Miller, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by The Associated Press. “I’d be so mad if they did, and then all the guns would be gone.”
Now two Colt, 14, and Colin Gray, 54, are accused of killing two students and two teachers Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, outside Atlanta. Nine others were wounded, seven of them were shot. The Grays appeared on Friday for the first time in court, where their lawyers refused to apply for bail.
The teenager was charged with murder, and the father was charged with second-degree murder for supplying his son with a semiautomatic, AR 15-style rifle used to kill children. An arrest warrant said the elder Gray knew his son was “a threat to himself and others.”
Jackson County authorities ended the investigation Colt Grey a year ago, concluded that there was no clear evidence to link him to the threats posted on Discord, a social media site popular with video gamers. The records of the investigation provide at least some information about the boy who struggled with his parents’ separation and at the high school he attended at the time, his father said that others often teased him.
“He was confused and under pressure. He wasn’t thinking straight,” Colin Gray told investigators on May 21, 2023, recalling a discussion he had with the boy’s principal.
Shooting guns and hunting, he said, are frequent pastimes for father and son. Gray said he encouraged the boy to be more active outdoors and spend less time playing video games on the Xbox.
When Colt Gray killed a deer a month earlier, the father swelled with pride. He showed investigators​​​​ a photo on his cell phone, saying: “You see him with blood on his cheek from taking the first deer.”
“It’s just the biggest day,” Colin Gray said.
There is no mention in the investigator’s report and interview transcript that Gray had an assault-style rifle. Asked if the son had a firearm, the father said yes.
But he said the gun was not loaded and insisted he emphasized safety when teaching the boy to shoot.
“They understand the seriousness of weapons and what they can do,” Gray said, “and how to use them and not use them.”
The eviction hit the Grays family in the summer of 2022.
On July 25 of that year, a sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to a rental house in a suburban cul-de-sac where Colin Gray, his wife, Colt and his two younger brothers lived. A moving crew is piling things in the yard.
Jackson County deputies said in a report that movers found guns and hunting bows in a closet in the master bedroom. They turned their weapons and ammunition over to the deputy for safekeeping, instead of leaving them outside with the rest of their family outside.
The deputy wrote that he left a copy of the receipt form for the weapon at the front door so Gray could pick it up at the sheriff’s office.
The reason for the eviction was not mentioned in the report. Colin Gray told investigators in 2023 that he had paid rent.
It was after the eviction, he said, that his wife left him, taking his two sisters.
Colt Gray “struggled at first with separation and everything,” said his father, who worked on a construction project.
“I’m the only provider, doing high in the middle of the city,” he told investigators. Two days later, there was a follow-up interview with Colin Gray while he was at work. He said by phone: “I’m hanging on the top of a building. … I have a big crane lift, so it’s a little noisy here.”
High school was also tough for Colt Gray. He had just finished seventh grade when Miller interviewed the father and son.
Colin Gray said the boy had only a few friends and was often picked on. Some students “just get ridiculed every day.”
“I don’t want him to fight anybody, but he still likes to pinch and touch them,” Gray said. “Words are one thing, but you start touching them and it’s completely different.
Investigators​​​​ also interviewed the boy, who is 13 years old, who was described in the report as quiet, calm and reserved.
He denied making the threats and said that a few months ago he stopped using the Discord platform, where school threats were posted. He later told his father that his account had been hacked.
“The only thing I like is TikTok, but I just log in and watch videos,” the teenager said.
A year before he was to be charged in the high school shooting, Colin Gray insisted to sheriff’s investigators that his son was not the type to threaten violence.
“He’s not a loner, Officer Miller. Don’t ask that,” the father said, adding: “He just wants to go to school, do it alone and don’t want trouble.”
That’s what Colin Gray to a Georgia A sheriff’s investigator who came to her door in May 2023 asked if an online threat to shoot up the school had been posted by her son, Colt.
“I don’t know anything about him saying (expletive) like that,” Gray said Jackson County sheriff’s investigator Daniel Miller, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by The Associated Press. “I’d be so mad if they did, and then all the guns would be gone.”
Now two Colt, 14, and Colin Gray, 54, are accused of killing two students and two teachers Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, outside Atlanta. Nine others were wounded, seven of them were shot. The Grays appeared on Friday for the first time in court, where their lawyers refused to apply for bail.
The teenager was charged with murder, and the father was charged with second-degree murder for supplying his son with a semiautomatic, AR 15-style rifle used to kill children. An arrest warrant said the elder Gray knew his son was “a threat to himself and others.”
Jackson County authorities ended the investigation Colt Grey a year ago, concluded that there was no clear evidence to link him to the threats posted on Discord, a social media site popular with video gamers. The records of the investigation provide at least some information about the boy who struggled with his parents’ separation and at the high school he attended at the time, his father said that others often teased him.
“He was confused and under pressure. He wasn’t thinking straight,” Colin Gray told investigators on May 21, 2023, recalling a discussion he had with the boy’s principal.
Shooting guns and hunting, he said, are frequent pastimes for father and son. Gray said he encouraged the boy to be more active outdoors and spend less time playing video games on the Xbox.
When Colt Gray killed a deer a month earlier, the father swelled with pride. He showed investigators​​​​ a photo on his cell phone, saying: “You see him with blood on his cheek from taking the first deer.”
“It’s just the biggest day,” Colin Gray said.
There is no mention in the investigator’s report and interview transcript that Gray had an assault-style rifle. Asked if the son had a firearm, the father said yes.
But he said the gun was not loaded and insisted he emphasized safety when teaching the boy to shoot.
“They understand the seriousness of weapons and what they can do,” Gray said, “and how to use them and not use them.”
The eviction hit the Grays family in the summer of 2022.
On July 25 of that year, a sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to a rental house in a suburban cul-de-sac where Colin Gray, his wife, Colt and his two younger brothers lived. A moving crew is piling things in the yard.
Jackson County deputies said in a report that movers found guns and hunting bows in a closet in the master bedroom. They turned their weapons and ammunition over to the deputy for safekeeping, instead of leaving them outside with the rest of their family outside.
The deputy wrote that he left a copy of the receipt form for the weapon at the front door so Gray could pick it up at the sheriff’s office.
The reason for the eviction was not mentioned in the report. Colin Gray told investigators in 2023 that he had paid rent.
It was after the eviction, he said, that his wife left him, taking his two sisters.
Colt Gray “struggled at first with separation and everything,” said his father, who worked on a construction project.
“I’m the only provider, doing high in the middle of the city,” he told investigators. Two days later, there was a follow-up interview with Colin Gray while he was at work. He said by phone: “I’m hanging on the top of a building. … I have a big crane lift, so it’s a little noisy here.”
High school was also tough for Colt Gray. He had just finished seventh grade when Miller interviewed the father and son.
Colin Gray said the boy had only a few friends and was often picked on. Some students “just get ridiculed every day.”
“I don’t want him to fight anybody, but he still likes to pinch and touch them,” Gray said. “Words are one thing, but you start touching them and it’s completely different.
Investigators​​​​ also interviewed the boy, who is 13 years old, who was described in the report as quiet, calm and reserved.
He denied making the threats and said that a few months ago he stopped using the Discord platform, where school threats were posted. He later told his father that his account had been hacked.
“The only thing I like is TikTok, but I just log in and watch videos,” the teenager said.
A year before he was to be charged in the high school shooting, Colin Gray insisted to sheriff’s investigators that his son was not the type to threaten violence.
“He’s not a loner, Officer Miller. Don’t ask that,” the father said, adding: “He just wants to go to school, do it alone and don’t want trouble.”