Emerging details reveal more about the 14-year-old accused of killing four individuals and injuring nine others in the recent shooting at Apalachee High School in northern Georgia. Investigators have uncovered significant information from when they interviewed the suspect last year.
As new facts surface about Colt Gray, the investigation is ongoing into how the teenager acquired the firearm used in the attack and the motive behind this latest school shooting in the U.S.
Earlier Tips About Threats
Over a year ago, online threats about a possible school shooting led Georgia police to question a 13-year-old boy. However, the evidence at the time was insufficient for an arrest. On Wednesday, this boy, now a teen, opened fire at his high school near Atlanta, resulting in four fatalities and nine injuries, according to officials.
The teen faces adult charges for the deaths of Apalachee High School students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, as well as instructors Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, as stated by Chris Hosey, Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, during a news conference.
Nine others, including eight students and a teacher from the Winder school, located about an hour northeast of Atlanta, were hospitalized with injuries. All are expected to recover, reported Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith.
Gray is currently detained at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, according to Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice spokesperson Glenn Allen, who spoke with CBS News on Thursday.
Barrage of Gunshots
Armed with an assault rifle, the teen fired at students in a school hallway after classmates refused to open the door for him to re-enter his algebra classroom, as recounted by classmate Lyela Sayarath.
Having previously left the algebra class, Sayarath assumed the quiet student, who had recently transferred, was skipping school. However, he returned later seeking reentry. Some students attempted to open the locked door but then retreated.
“I’m guessing they saw something, but for some reason they didn’t open the door,” Sayarath explained.
Through a window in the door, she saw the student turn and then heard a rapid series of gunshots.
“It was about 10 or 15 of them at once, back-to-back,” she said.
The math students ducked and crawled around, searching for a safe place to hide.
Two school resource officers confronted the shooter minutes after receiving reports of gunfire, according to Hosey. The teen surrendered immediately and was taken into custody.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith noted that law enforcement was alerted to the threat due to a new security system installed about a week before the shooting. Smith added that there were three school resource officers present on campus during the incident.
Teen Previously Interviewed Over FBI Tips
The teen had been questioned after the FBI received anonymous tips in May 2023 regarding online threats of an unspecified school shooting, according to a statement from the agency.
FBI Atlanta announced on social media Wednesday night that the National Threat Operations Center identified the posts originating from Georgia. The Atlanta Field Office referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, which neighbors Barrow County.
The sheriff’s office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who claimed there were hunting guns at home but that the teen did not have unsupervised access. The teen denied making any threats online.
Reports from the sheriff’s office, released Thursday, revealed that the threats were made through an account on the online chat app Discord. The account’s profile name, written in Russian, was translated to the last name of the shooter involved in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School attack, according to the sheriff’s office.
The teen informed investigators he deleted the Discord account due to repeated hacking attempts, according to sheriff’s office reports.
The sheriff’s office also learned that the teen and his father had been evicted from their home earlier in 2023. The father reported that the teen had struggled at middle school but showed improvement after transferring to a different school.
Local schools were notified for continued monitoring of the teen, but the FBI stated there was no probable cause for arrest or further action.
Hosey mentioned that the state Division of Family and Children’s Services had prior contact with the teen and would investigate if there is any connection to the shooting. On Wednesday, local news reported that law enforcement searched the teen’s family home in Bethlehem, Georgia, located east of the high school.
“All the students that had to watch their teachers and their fellow classmates die, the ones that had to walk out of the school limping, that looked traumatized,” Sayarath remarked, “that’s the consequence of the action of not taking control.”
Authorities are still investigating how the teen obtained the weapon used in the shooting and brought it into the school with around 1,900 students in Barrow County, a fast-developing area on the outskirts of metro Atlanta.
Disturbing Trend
This shooting is the latest in a series of school shootings in the U.S. over recent years, including particularly deadly incidents in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. These tragedies have sparked intense debates about gun control and heightened anxiety among parents whose children are accustomed to active shooter drills. Despite the uproar, there has been little progress on national gun laws.
As of Wednesday, there have been 29 mass killings in the U.S. this year, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press and USA Today in collaboration with Northeastern University. These incidents, defined as situations where four or more people die within a 24-hour period excluding the killer, have resulted in at least 127 deaths, following the FBI’s criteria.
That evening, hundreds gathered for a vigil at Jug Tavern Park in downtown Winder. Volunteers distributed candles, water, pizza, and tissues. Some knelt as a Methodist minister led the crowd in prayer after a Barrow County commissioner recited a Jewish mourning prayer.
Christopher Vasquez, 15, attended the vigil to find a sense of grounding and safety. He was in band practice when the lockdown was announced, initially feeling it was just another drill as students hid in the band closet.
“Once we heard banging at the door and the SWAT (team) came to take us out, that’s when I knew that it was serious,” he recounted. “I just started shaking and crying.”
He calmed down once he was at the football stadium, saying, “I just was praying that everyone I love was safe.”
{Matzav.com}
Didn’t we tell you the FBI/CIA “know” these shooters in advance?