Winder, Georgia– Opening statements are expected on Monday Trial of a man Whose teenage son Accused of murder Two students and teachers at a Georgia high school in September 2024.
The issue is One of several Across the country as prosecutors try to hold parents accountable after their children are accused of fatal shootings. Colin Gray He faces 29 chargesincluding two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of manslaughter and several counts of second-degree cruelty to children in connection with the shooting at Appalachian High School in Winder.
The indictment says Gray allowed his son, Colt, to obtain a handgun and ammunition “after receiving adequate warning that Colt Gray would harm and endanger the physical safety of another person.” Prosecutors say that amounts to child cruelty, and second-degree murder is defined in Georgia law as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of child cruelty.
The trial is being held in Winder, Barrow County, where the shooting occurred. The defense asked A Change of place Because of pretrial publicity, prosecutors agreed. The judge kept the trial in Winder but decided to bring in jurors from neighboring Hall County to hear the case. Jurors were selected last week.
Investigators said Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time, carefully planned the shooting on September 4, 2024, at the 1,900-student school northeast of Atlanta.
Investigators said he had a semi-automatic rifle in his book bag, with the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, and boarded the school bus. They said he left his second semester, came out of the bathroom carrying the gun, and then shot people in the classroom and hallways.
A detective testified at a pretrial hearing by Colleen Gray He gave his son the gun as a gift Christmas before shooting and I bought a larger magazine so the gun could hold more rounds.
Colin Gray knew his son was obsessed with school shootings, and even had a shrine in his bedroom Nikolas CruzThe shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, prosecutors said. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the teen’s parents discussed their son’s fascination with school shooters, but decided it was a joke and not a serious problem.
Colin Gray also was aware of his son’s deteriorating mental health and sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, an investigator testified.
“We have been going through a very difficult time the last two years and he needs help. Anger and anxiety are volatile. I don’t know what to do,” Colin Gray wrote about his son.