The Apalachee High School Shooting
plssss fact check me!! tell me if I forgot anything or if im wrong and I'll fix it.
Age at the time: 14 (January 14th, 2010)
Location: Apalachee High School, Winder, Georgia.
Day of the Attack: September 4th, 2024.
Weapon: AR-15 style Semi-Automatic Rifle
Punishment: Not sentenced at time of writing
Charges: Not sentenced at time of writing
Killed: 4 (2 students, 2 teachers)
Injured: 9 (8 students, 1 teacher)
Colt Gray was born on January 14th, 2010 in Georgia to Marcee and Colin Gray. He has a younger brother and a younger sister. Colt's family moved pretty often during his childhood. His home life was not good. There are reports of violence within the household, verbal and physical. His parents were both addicted to pain medicine. There was clear abuse in the household with marcee locking the children outside, hitting them, the parents would hit each other, etc. Colts parents separated in November of 2022. Colt continued to live with his father after the divorce, but his siblings didn't. The siblings were eventually taken from Marcee. At a point, they moved in with Colin after Marcee failed a drug test. Colt often changed schools and it is cited that he changed 7 schools in 4 years. He experienced mental health problems. Colt would often have panic attacks and he would in general have outbursts. He did not get a lot of help for these problems. Even at 11 years old, Colt had made his mental health problems clear when he looked up “how to kill my dad” on a school device. He would leave holes in the walls and he would act out often. Colt at one point had taken a knife to house furniture during a period of time when living with his mother. He was bullied at school very often. He was into true crime, and it was known by his parents. His mother knew more of his interest but Colin was still aware. He did not know to what degree Colt's interest went. He had a lot of photos of Nikolas Cruz on his walls. He was suicidal. It is made obvious through photos he had taken with a gun in his mouth, his journal entries, scars, messages made online, etc.
On May 21st, 2023, Police arrived at the Gray house. They had received a tip from the FBI that Colt had made a threat to shoot up his school over Discord. It was linked to their old address but they had moved houses. A video of the bodycam footage exists online but I will summarize it. His father, Colin Gray, is asked if he has a son. He replies yes, a 13 year old boy who likes to play video games. He is sent inside to grab Colt, but first Colin tells them to speak to Colt calmly, pointing out he is sensitive. He tells a story about a previous eviction as well, and how Colt struggled with the divorce but has ultimately gotten better. The cops ask Colin if there are accessible weapons in the house, Colin said there are unloaded weapons and tells a story of Colt shooting his first deer earlier that year. Colin talks about how he was upset by the investigation and that if the whole thing is true, if Colt had made threats, the guns would be taken. “And then all the guns will go away and they won't be accessible to him”. He was defensive over it. Colin heads inside and brings Colt back out. Colt says he wouldn't say something like that and maybe it was someone else. He says he doesn't use discord but he used to have it a few months prior. Colin says Colt knows how serious shootings are. Colt says he only has tiktok. The conversation is sent to talking about where he attends school, and Colt tries to say he isn't bullied and that he talks to counselors. They ask Colt about the deer he killed, and what he wants to be when he grows up, to which he responds a philosopher. The conversation is basically over and the officers leave, only hoping that Colt was honest. The FBI continued to watch Colt/investigate the incident.
On December 25th, 2023, Colt Gray was given a gun for Christmas. This gun was meant to be used for hunting. His father purchased the AR-15 style rifle legally. He did this after the police came to his house about Colt threatening to shoot up the school.
In July of 2024, His mother, Marcee Gray, lived with the family after she had gotten out of rehab. She noticed Colt was anxious and talked to Colin about it. She claims that Colin was ignoring it.
“I think in general the defendant just didn’t want to deal with it. He just wanted to not pay attention to it and hope it would go away,”
“My personal opinion is that he was afraid Colt would go in and start talking about the emotional mental abuse that he was suffering at the hands of the defendant,”
Marcee testified this in a trial against Colin Gray.
There was a time where Marcee had attempted to kill both Colin and Colt. She had told her mother of her plan. She claims, under meth induced psychosis, she believed that her children were in danger and she needed to get them. Her mother would not go with her, so she strapped her mother to a chair after throwing her up against a wall and left. This was done to prevent police from being notified. She was arrested. She had gotten clean after this incident. Colt knew about it and asked his grandmother if his mother would actually kill him.
Colt did not attend school at the same time as everyone else. He began on August 14th, not the regular August 1st. He missed a total of 9 days of school prior to the shooting. Colt asked his father to buy a myriad of supplies for him including a vest, ammo, laser sights, and other things. A week before the shooting, they pushed additional safety protocols at Apalachee High School. Panic buttons were introduced in case of emergency. Several were pushed during the shooting.
The Shooting: September 4th, 2024.
Colt texted his parents apologies before the shooting began but while he was at school. His mother reported him to the authorities who began to look for him in the school. Apalachee high also received a call, threatening the school.
Colt Gray headed off to school on the bus. With him was his backpack and a poster board. Within the poster board (which was a poster made by Colt and his brother for their mother), Colt would conceal his weapon. He would claim it was a project for school. He went to class. It's noted that Colt asked how they would respond in an active shooting scenario. His teacher reported the comment in an email to other school staff.
9:45 a.m: Colt left his algebra class and went into the bathroom. He had asked the teacher if he could go to the office to speak to someone, and he was granted permission to leave the classroom. He left, holding his posterboard and backpack. In the bathroom, discarded, was an ID and a hat belonging to Colt.
Previously, I stated that Marcee alerted authorities. well they came and got the wrong student who shared a simular name. They later realized they were wrong.
Colt attempted to come back to class about 30 minutes later but was denied entry when a student saw his weapon peeking out of the posterboard. The door had locked behind Gray when he had left previously. He decided to ditch that plan and he walked to a different classroom and shot inside, killing a student and wounding others. He then shot down the hallway. Colt surrendered and was taken into custody around 10:30 am. 4 were killed in this attack.
Colt Gray is still going through trials. His father has been going through trials since he had provided the weapon to Colt. The second time in history that a parent has been charged in a school shooting case. Colt will be charged as an adult.
They are working on convicting Colt on 54 charges. That includes:
25 Counts - Aggravated Assault
18 Counts - First Degree Child Cruelty
3 Counts- Aggrivated Battery
Colin is convicted of 29 counts.
18 Counts - Second Degree Child Cruelty
5 Counts - Reckless Conduct
4 Counts - Involuntary Manslaughter
2 Counts - Second Degree Murder.
