Law&Crime Sidebar - 12 Disturbing Details of Georgia School Shooting and Suspect Colt Gray

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Colt Gray, 14, and his father Colin Gray, 54, are both behind bars in connection with a deadly rampage inside a north Georgia high school. After being read his rights, the teen reportedly told investigators, “I did it.” His father was arrested for allowing his son to have easy access to a gun. The father reportedly gave Gray an AR-style rifle for Christmas. Two teachers and two students died at Apalachee High School in Winder on September 4. Nine others were wounded. Law&Crime's Elizabeth Millner has the latest developments.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve ever been injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/YouTubeTakeoverGUEST HOST:Elizabeth Millner https://x.com/_emillnerLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. His charges are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon. A teen and his father are both behind bars after the country's latest school shooting left two students and two teachers dead. It happened about an hour outside of Atlanta in Winder, Georgia. The 14-year-old alleged shooter made his first appearance in court, accused of using an assault rifle to target his classmates and teachers. We have the latest information from police reports, court records, and witnesses. Welcome to Sidebar presented

by Law and Crime. I'm Elizabeth Milner in for Jesse Weber. 14-year-old Colt Gray appeared in court in person on Friday to hear the charges against him, four counts of felony murder. If you have any questions about these charges, then I would urge you to discuss those with your attorney. I would invite you, Mr. Harmon, to inform the court as to whether there's a request for bond at this time. At this time, Your Honor, there is not a request for bond. We will file the appropriate motions if that becomes a court. necessary all right an indictment by the grand jury for most felony offenses

or accusations well you have the right to receive an indictment for these offenses and I assume mr. Brad Smith is here on behalf of the DA's office or he is our district attorney so and he's accompanied by miss Patricia Brooks who is his chief assistant a preliminary hearing you'll have the right also to a preliminary hearing unless you make a bond, which of course at this point there's no bond being requested or unless you waive such a hearing. You have the right to a speedy and public trial by a judge or jury. You have the right to confront and cross-examine all witnesses. You have the right to call witnesses on your own behalf and testify in your

own defense if you so choose. As you sit here in this courtroom today, under the law, you are presumed innocent. Your refusal to testify at any point in any proceeding will not be used against you in determining whether you are guilty or not guilty. Well, let me just inquire as to whether there are any other items that the court should address before we conclude this preliminary hearing. Nayor. Okay. Well, I do have one piece of information to convey to the court.

There was a development yesterday afternoon that makes it necessary for our office to have alternate counsel appointed and arrangements have already been made in that regard. I've already explained that to Mr. Gray and alternate counsel will be appointed by the end of the day today. Thank you very much, Ms. Donna C. Graves. All right, then with that, this hearing is concluded, and you may escort this defendant out. After a brief recess, the judge brought Colt back into the courtroom to clarify some things. All right, Mr. Gray, we visited a moment ago. I just need to correct a couple of things on the record. I correctly told you the maximum penalty for the crimes for which you are charged.

That's correct, except for the fact that you are under 18 years old. So I wanted to inform you and make it clear to you that the penalty for the crimes for which you are charged does not include death. It includes life without the possibility of parole or life with the possibility of parole. I also wanted to inform you that the court has set December 4th at 8.30 a.m. for your preliminary hearing. and that is, of course, subject to change as you secure new counsel later today and so forth. Is there anything else that needs to be addressed that anyone can think of? Negrar. All right.

So with that, you may escort Mr. Colt Gray back out. Thank you. A few minutes later, Colin Gray, Colt's father, also appeared in court. He seemed emotional and rocked. back and forth in his seat as the judge read the charges and the penalty he could face if he's convicted. I'm first going to ask you just a few questions and then I'm going to advise you of your rights and also let you know about a preliminary hearing that's been scheduled for you. Why don't you just state your name please?

All right, and pull the microphone down please. There you go. All right and And how old are you, Mr. Gray? Fifty-four. And are you able to read and write and understand the English language without any difficulty? Yes, sir. How far did you go in school? 11th grade, GED. Okay.

All right. So the following aren't questions that I'm going to ask. I'm just informing you of some things. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you at further hearings or at a trial. on the charges that you're facing. For this hearing, you're not going to be questioned about facts and circumstances surrounding your charges.

You are currently charged with, and you'll be provided with copies of the warrants if you don't already have them, currently charged with two counts of felony murder in the second degree. You're charged with four counts of felony murder in the second degree. felony involuntary manslaughter. You're charged with eight counts of felony cruelty to children in the second degree. Now, for these offenses, for the felony murder counts in the second degree, felony murder in the second degree, the maximum penalty for each count is up to 30 years of imprisonment. For felony involuntary manslaughter, of course, again, there are four counts.

The maximum penalty for each of those offenses is 10 years' imprisonment. For the eight felony cruelty to children counts, the maximum penalty under the law for each of those eight counts is 10 years' imprisonment. for a maximum total possible penalty for the charges that you currently are facing of 180 years imprisonment. Attorney sitting in as counsel for Colin Gray also did not seek bond on Friday, opting to have his future court-appointed counsel file a motion at a later date if they want. For now, he's scheduled to be back in court in December.

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you can start by easily submitting a claim at for the people.com slash YouTube takeover. So here's what we know so far about what happened on Wednesday, September 4th. Witnesses say the shooter left his algebra class around 10 a.m. and came back to the classroom with an assault rifle his father reportedly gave him for Christmas. When he couldn't get back into his math class, witnesses say the alleged shooter went to the classroom next door. That's when he allegedly opened fire killing Mason Skirmerhorn and Christian Angelo both 14 years old and teachers

Richard Aspenwall and Christina Iramee. School had only been back in session for about a month. Nine other people, including eight students, were injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital. Fortunately, all nine are expected to be released and make a full recovery. Two school resource officers confronted Gray, according to Barrow County Sheriff Judge Smith, and he surrendered putting the gun on the ground. After he was read his rights, he reportedly made a chilling statement. I did it. Arrest warrants for the alleged shooter charge him with four counts of felony murder.

For now, he's being held at a youth detention center, but he'll be tried. as an adult. According to authorities, Wednesday was actually only the shooter's second day at Appalachia High. He was a transfer student who had only come to the school for part of the day on Tuesday. Sheriff Judd Smith told CNN that Gray had left class on his first day to visit the counselor's office because he was having anxiety. The next day, he was only in class for about 30 minutes before the attack. Heartbreaking text messages have been posted on social media showing conversations between students inside the building and panicked friends and family outside. Aaron Clark posted a text thread showing the messages, school shooting right now. I'm scared. Please,

I'm not joking. A response, where are you? Class, someone's dead. Just one day after the shooting, 54-year-old Colin Gray was arrested in connection with the shooting. As you heard, he's charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says a brand new emergency alert system saved lives during the shooting. The new technology was just installed last week. Several teachers were also able to press buttons on badges to call for help and put the school on a hard lockdown. Please lift up our community. Please keep these children, these teachers. We call them teachers, but I call them heroes. We met within today. Emotions are very,

high obviously but we told them that we love them we love our teachers and what they do and we're very happy at the fact that they stood in the gap between evil to protect their children and we want to include them in the save the lives that were saved as well yesterday we're heartbroken a young person brought a gun into a school committed an evil act and he took lives and he injured many other people not only physically but mentally but i'm proud of barra county i'm proud of our superintendent i'm proud of these teachers i'm proud of these schools and i'm proud of where i live and we'll get past this you see behind me up here on the hill we got a vigil going on at our

flagpole i welcome you to go see those kids and those young people that are hurting we want to talk about the victims in the shooting 14-year-old mason skirmarhorn had recently started at the high school. His mother says he was living with autism and could be easily spooked. There were searches for Mason and all the chaos on the day of the shooting with his family hopeful that he was hiding somewhere, but they soon learned he was actually one of the victims. A family friend told the New York Times he really enjoyed life. He always had an upbeat attitude about everything. 14-year-old Christian Angelo was also killed. His sister wrote on a GoFundMe page for funeral expenses. He was loved by so many. was so sudden and unexpected. We are truly heartbroken. He really didn't deserve this.

The two teachers who lost their lives were both math instructors. Thirty-nine-year-old Rich in Aspen Wall was also the high school football team's defense coordinator. The husband and father of two little girls is being remembered as someone who was kind-hearted and hardworking. Fifty-three-year-old Christian Erami, an algebra teacher, also died from gunshot wounds. The native of Romania was active in the Romanian community and worked as a dance instructor. She was actually celebrating her birthday on the day of the shooting. A friend told CNN she decided to bake a cake and bring pizza to her class the day she died so she could celebrate her birthday with her kids. GoFundMe pages have been set up for each victim's families. Several of the surviving victims have also been

identified. Taylor Jones was life-flighted to Grady Memorial Hospital, a level one trauma center in Atlanta. She's listed as being in stable condition. Her family didn't say exactly what her injuries were, but said she will have to undergo more surgeries and physical therapy. David Phoenix was another math teacher and part of the building where Gray allegedly opened fire. Witnesses say when they heard loud banging sounds, Phoenix went to open the classroom door and that's when he was shot. Another teacher was able to scramble to the door and shut it. Phoenix's daughter wrote on Facebook that when David woke up from surgery on Wednesday, he immediately wanted to know if everyone else was okay. You will also need additional surgeries, but is expected to recover.

So what exactly was the motive behind such a destructive and heinous act of violence? That's what investigators are trying to figure out right now. It appears Gray had a troubling home life growing up. He was living with his father, Colin, while his mother Marcy lived with her parents hours away in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Gray's mom Marcy has a criminal history dating back to 2007. She was sentenced to jail last December around the time it's believed Colin Gray bought his son an AR-15-style rifle for Christmas. In December, Gray pled guilty to counts of using a license plate to conceal identity, damage to property, and trespassing slash family violence. Marcy was sentenced to five years in jail, but only served 46 days before she was released on probation. She had to take part

in a family violent intervention program and not use drugs or alcohol. But then in April of this year, Marcy was charged in connection with a case of aggravated battery of a 73-year-old woman. She allegedly threw the woman against the wall, broke a mirror in her home, and tied the woman's hands and feats to keep her from leaving. She reportedly has not yet been indicted in that case and was released on bond. Marcy has previously said on her LinkedIn page that she was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, Colin. Court records show she had been banned from contacting Colin Gray without some sort of third-party intermediary being involved. A neighbor who lived next door to the Grays at their home in Jefferson, Georgia, back in 2022,

said she would hear screaming and yelling all the time, and that sometimes Marcy would lock the children outside. She also claimed to the New York Post that she would sometimes find Marcy passed out behind the wheel of her car in the driveway. Neighbors near the Gray's current home in Windsor say they mostly kept to themselves. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Marcy Gray was sued by a Chevrolet dealership in 2019. She reportedly bought a Chevy Suburban using a $10,000 check as a down payment, but the check bounced. Marcy was ordered to pay the dealership around $19,000, which included the money initially owed, plus interest and attorney fees. As news started to come out about the shooting at Appalachy High, the alleged shooter's aunt and Marcy's sister, Annie Pulhamis Brown, started writing on Facebook, and her post immediately went viral.

A now deleted post said in part, quote, I am not scared. I will not back. down. I will not disrespect other parents and families that are dealing with this tragedy on the opposite end. They did not deserve this. With that said, I will not leave my nephew standing alone. When Yuvaldi happened, I told my own children only hurt people, hurt people. I did everything I could to fight for my nephew. I will take care of my nephew and what he needs on this side. Just check yourself before you speak about a child that never asked to deal with the BS he saw on a daily basis. Polhamis Brown was immediately condemned by people in the comments, and she soon deleted

the posts. Meantime, within hours of the school shooting on Wednesday, the FBI's Atlanta field office released information about school shooting threats made in May of last year that were connected back to Colt Gray. We got our hands on the Jackson County investigative report about the conversation between deputies and Colt, as well as his father, Colin. The FBI had gotten a tip that someone planned to shoot up a middle school the next day. The info came from a user on a Discord chat.

Discord is an online platform mainly used by video gamers to live stream. Investigators were able to connect the account to an email address linked to Colt. I responded to this address and spoke with Colin Gray and his 13-year-old son, Colt. Colin stated that he does not know what Discord is, stating that he works full-time and does not play video games. Colin allowed me to speak with Colt. Colt stated he used to have a Discord account, but deleted it prior to moving from their previous address. Colt expressed concern that someone is accusing him

of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner. Colin informed me that he does have firearms in the house, but that they are hunting rifles. He stated Colt is allowed to use them when supervised, but he does not have unfettered access to them. This was prior to Colin allegedly purchasing a rifle

from Colt for Christmas last year. Investigators linked the school shooting threat to multiple IP address. all over the country. Because that exact source of the threat couldn't be identified, neither Colt nor Colin Gray were detained. The Sheriff's Office report states, at this time, due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI, the allegation that Colt or Colin is the user behind the discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated. This case will be exceptionally cleared. As law enforcement dealt with the mayhem and uncertainty

surrounding the shooting at Appalachie High School, other North Georgia school, were dealing with threats of their own. In one case, Gainesville police arrested a 14-year-old charging him with making a terroristic threat and disrupting operation of a public school after an alleged threat started circulating on social media. Officials in Athens, Clark County also announced they had a person in custody for hoax threats.

This one, a 12-year-old. They say he posted photos of guns he found online and listed names of schools. There were rumors in the hours after the attack that there was more than one shooter that they plan to target as many schools as possible. In fact, another teen in Jackson County, where Colt Gray lived until recently, was heard saying on a school bus that he planned to, quote, finish the job. Deputies tracked the student down and arrested him. He's now in the same

youth detention center as Colt. The sheriff said those rumors were unfounded and it appeared Colt Gray was the lone perpetrator. A second vigil is planned for Friday night at a park in winder. Grief counselors are expected to be there to help anyone who might need it. Of course, you to follow this case closely and bring you the latest. That does it for this episode of Sidebar. You can watch more episodes and subscribe to us anywhere you get your podcasts. I'm Elizabeth Milner, and this has been Sidebar presented by Law and Crime. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.