Teenager charged over deadly shooting at Georgia high school appears in court
6 September 2024, 20:34
Colt Gray, 14, will stay in detention as his lawyer declined to seek bail. His father Colin Gray will remain jailed without bail.
The 14-year-old suspect in a shooting at a Georgia high school in which four people died will stay in detention as his lawyer declined to seek bail at a court hearing on Friday.
The hearing came a day after his father was also arrested for allowing his son to have a weapon.
Colin Gray’s hearing on Friday came shortly after the court appearance for his son. He will remain jailed without bail.
After his hearing, Colt Gray, wearing khaki pants and a green shirt, was escorted out of court in shackles on his wrists and ankles.
The judge then called him back to the courtroom to correct an earlier misstatement that his crimes could be punishable by death. Because he is a juvenile, the maximum penalty he would face is life without parole.
The judge also set another hearing for December 4.
According to arrest warrants obtained by The Associated Press, Colt Gray is accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta.
Nine people were also hurt in Wednesday’s attack. Authorities have not offered any motive or explained how Colt Gray obtained the gun or got it into the school.
Colin Gray has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder related to the shooting. Arrest warrants said he caused the deaths of others “by providing a firearm to Colt Gray with the knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others”.
“His charges are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said.
Court records early on Friday did not indicate whether either had a lawyer yet ahead of their court hearings.
Colt Gray was charged as an adult with four counts of murder in the deaths of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
A neighbour remembered Mason as inquisitive when he was a little boy. Mr Aspinwall and Ms Irimie were both math teachers, and Mr Aspinwall also helped coach the school’s football team. Ms Irimie, who emigrated to the US from Romania, volunteered at a local church, where she taught dance.
Before Colt Gray’s hearing at the Barrow County courthouse, court workers set out boxes of tissue along courtroom benches, and relatives and community members began to trickle into the courtroom on Friday morning in advance of the hearings for the son and father.
The teenager denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him last year about a menacing post on social media, according to a sheriff’s report obtained on Thursday.
