Topic: 5 things to know about Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray– Christian News 6 SEPTEMBER 2024 – Faithwheel.com
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5 things to know about Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray
The suspect behind the Apalachee High School shooting in Winder, Georgia, which left four people dead and nine others injured, has been identified as 14-year-old Colt Gray.
A statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation also confirmed that the four people killed in the shooting were identified as two students and two teachers. They are Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, along with teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.
“At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that there were additional shooters. Investigators are actively pursuing all leads regarding any potential associates of the shooter,” the Georgia Bureau of investigation’s statement said.
“There is no evidence of a list of schools being targeted; however, there is a lot of evidence that is being recovered and evaluated. Investigators are diligently reviewing leads to determine if there are any active threats,” it added.
Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of investigation, said during a news briefing on Wednesday that Gray used a rifle to kill the victims in the hallway outside his algebra class.
Here are five things you should know about him.
1. His parents are Marcee Gray and Colin Gray
According to Marcee Gray’s LinkedIn profile, she attended Georgia Southern University where she did her undergraduate studies in science and technology in industrial management. She also completed graduate studies in occupational safety and health at Columbia Southern University. She last worked as a senior quality engineer for PCC Airfoils.
Colin Gray has been identified as Colt Gray’s father.
2. Colt Gray came from a broken home
Both of Colt Gray’s parents struggled with personal demons. Marcee Gray was arrested in Georgia on Nov. 6, 2023, and slapped with a number of charges, including possession of methamphetamine, sale, distribution, possession of dangerous drugs, and concealing identity of a vehicle, according to a crime report.
She said she separated from Colin Gray after 14 years of marriage because she had continually suffered domestic violence.
In a statement posted on Facebook in November 2022, Marcee Gray revealed that her husband had suffered significant abuse as a child.
“From my husband’s first memory, all he knew was abuse. Severe physical abuse (I’m talking everything from getting a broken arm at age 8 while he was totally asleep to having a barstool crack his skull open…I still rub my fingers across the scar/gouge on his scalp and think to myself ‘How?! I can’t even comprehend it!’” she wrote. “That is what substance abuse can do.
She further explained in another post along with a video link to rock band Blink-182’s “Stay Together For The Kids” that she believes God had sent her to him.
“I know it’s hard to understand from the outside looking in. Everyone in my and his family couldn’t understand why I stayed as long as I did. Ultimately it was my own decision… I made a commitment to the Lord and my husband. No one but me understands the pain that my husband lives with every single day,” she said. “Every single person in his life has hurt or betrayed him… And I truly believe that the Lord sent me to him because no one else was strong enough to stay by his side through thick and thin. I’m not about to give up on him now… We are just taking a break.”
At the time of the shooting at Apalachee High School they were still on a break.
3. Colt Gray was known as a ‘quiet’ student at Apalachee High School
Lyela Sayarath, a junior at Apalachee High School, described Colt Gray to CNN as “quiet,” and said she wasn’t surprised that he would launch such an attack on the school. She said he habitually skipped classes or school entirely.
“He never really talked. He was pretty quiet,” she said. “He wasn’t there most times either. He just didn’t come to school, or he just would skip class. But even when he would’ve talked, it was one-word answers and short statements.”
Sayarath said shortly before the shooting on Wednesday morning that Colt Gray had been sitting beside her in their algebra I class. She said he left the classroom and then came back a short while later with a gun. She said because the classroom doors automatically closes when people exit, they have to be let into the classroom by someone who is already inside. She said their teacher saw that he was trying to re-enter the class with a gun and they never allowed him back inside so he turned to another class.
He “turned to the classroom that would have been to my right, and he just starts to shoot, and you hear about 10 to 15 rounds back-to-back,” Sayarath said. “When we heard it, most people just dropped to the floor and kind of crawled in an area, like, piled on top of each other. The teacher turned off the lights, but we all just kind of piled together, and I pushed desks in front of us. I was just telling people, ‘Push desks in front of you, block in front of you, get low’ — things like that.”
4. Colt Gray previously investigated for threatening to carry out school shooting
Barrow County Sheriff Judd Smith called the shooting “pure evil.” A statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Atlanta Division said in May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and the threats included photographs of guns.
The then-13-year-old boy was interviewed along with his father who told officials that he had hunting guns in his house, but his son didn’t have unsupervised access to them. Colt Gray, who wasn’t identified by name in the statement, also denied making the threats and no charges were filed in that investigation.
“A thorough investigation was conducted,” Jackson Sheriff Janis Mangum said in a statement Wednesday on the investigation. “During the course of this investigation, the gaming site threats could not be substantiated.”
5. Colt Gray will be tried as an adult for the murders
Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of investigation, said during a news briefing Wednesday that Colt Gray will be tried as an adult. Dallas LeDuff, superintendent of the Barrow County School System, also noted that schools would be closed for the remainder of the week.
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