Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old student accused of opening fire at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, has some defenses he can use after he was arrested and charged in connection to the mass shooting, an attorney told Newsweek on Friday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced Thursday that Colin Gray, 54, had been arrested in connection to the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. His son, Colt Gray, has been accused of killing four—two teachers and two students—and injuring nine others in the gunfire. The nine victims who were hospitalized in the shooting are expected to recover.
Colin Gray was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to GBI. The charges are based in part on a warning that police gave last year when Colt allegedly made threats on Discord, a social media platform, and Colin Gray's alleged purchase of an assault rifle for his son.
The GBI's director, Chris Hosey, told reporters at a news conference Thursday night that Colin Gray's charges "stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon."
In Georgia, murder in the second degree is punishable by 10 to 30 years in prison. Involuntary manslaughter, which means that a person causes the death of another without any intention to do so, is punishable by one to 10 years in prison.
New York-based attorney Colleen Kerwick told Newsweek via email on Friday that there are a number of defenses open to Colin Gray based on his remoteness to the shooting and his attempts to help his son.
State Intervention: "Child protective services were involved in Colt Gray's upbringing and endorsed Colin Gray as a parent," Kerwick said, who believes that this may be a strong argument in Colin Gray's defense.
Colt was allowed to live with his father and may share joint responsibility for his upbringing.
The Courts: "The family courts may have also, as Colin Colt secured primary residential custody of Colt in his pending divorce from Colt's mother," Kerwick said.
Those court records may play a powerful role in Colin Gray's defense as the court would have had to approve of his parenting and there was likely expert assessment of him as a parent.
Georgia Gun Law: "While Colin allowed Colt to possess a firearm, he is a hunter and it is legal to allow his son to have a firearm under certain circ*mstances," Kerwick said who pointed to title 16, Chapter 11 of the 2023 Georgia code.
The code, while it prohibits under 18s from possessing a firearm, offers many exceptions.
This includes under-18s who are: "attending a hunter education course or a firearms safety course"; "engaging in practice in the use of a firearm or target shooting at an established range authorized by the governing body of the jurisdiction where such range is located" or any under-18 "engaging in an organized competition involving the use of a firearm or participating in or practicing for a performance by an organized group."
There is also an exception for "hunting or fishing pursuant to a valid license."
The Georgia law also allows gun possession for under-18s "traveling to or from any activity" described above, as long as the gun isn't loaded during transit.
Perhaps loosest of all is the exemption for any under 18s on "property under the control of such person's parent, legal guardian, or grandparent and who has the permission of such person's parent or legal guardian to possess a handgun."
Investigators said Wednesday that officers at the Jackson County Sheriff's Office had questioned Colt Gray and his father in May 2023 after the FBI's National Threat Operations Center received "several anonymous tips" about online threats made to commit a school shooting. At the time, Colt had denied making the threats, and investigators found "no probable cause for arrest" or additional action, according to a statement from FBI Atlanta.
Colin Gray told officers at that time he had "hunting guns in the house," but that his son "did not have unsupervised access to them." In a transcript of the interview obtained by the Associated Press, Colin Gray told officers that his son "knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them."
Investigators said Colt Gray used a semi-automatic assault-style rifle in the attack.
Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder and is being held in the Gainesville Region Youth Detention Center. Under state law, a felony murder conviction carries a minimum sentence of life in prison with or without parole. Felony murder convictions can also result in the death penalty in Georgia.
Wednesday's shooting marks the 30th mass killing in the United States this year, according to data compiled by the AP, USA Today and Northeastern University. The FBI defines a mass shooting as gunfire in which four or more people die within 24 hours, not including the killer.
The first time that parents were criminally charged in connection to their child committing a mass shooting was in Oxford, Michigan, where James and Jennifer Crumbley were convicted of manslaughter and later sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison earlier this year. The Crumbleys' son, Ethan, was sentenced to life in prison in December for killing four of his classmates in November 2021.
