New bodycam video shows police interviewing Apalachee school shooting suspect, father

Newly released bodycam footage shows police interviewing Colt Gray and his father more than a year before authorities say the 14-year-old shot and killed four people and injured nine others at Apalachee High School last week in Winder, Georgia.

Colt Gray has been charged with four felony murder counts. His father, Colin Gray, was also arrested and charged with two counts of murder in the second degree, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children in the second degree. The pair appeared before a judge in the same Barrow County courtroom on Friday. The two remain behind bars.

Colt Gray is accused of killing fellow students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, on Wednesday at Apalachee High School.

Colin Gray is the first parent in Georgia to be charged for an attack allegedly carried out by his child, according to prosecutors. "These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to posses a weapon,'' said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey.

More:How Georgia's Apalachee High School shooting unfolded: Complete timeline of events

The video shows the interaction between the father and son and deputies from the Jackson County Sheriff's Office in May of 2023 in response to a tip about online threats to commit a school shooting, including pictures of guns.

The threats were posted to an account on the social media platform Discord that the FBI traced to Colt Gray through an email address. County authorities notified local schools and told Colin Gray to keep his son out of school, but there was no probable cause for an arrest, according to the FBI's Atlanta Division.

In the video, obtained by USA TODAY, Gray told investigators that the guns in the house were accessible to his son but said he was trying to teach him gun safety.

"He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do and how to use them and not use them," said the elder Gray, wearing a silver cross necklace and holding a can as he spoke with police outside his door.

"We do a lot of shooting. We do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year," Gray said. He told investigators a picture on his phone showed his son "with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer," according to the video.

The elder Gray said he was "taken aback" by the idea that his son had made the threats, and that both he and his son took it very seriously.

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"I'm going to be mad as hell if he did and then all the guns will go away."

Months after the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley were sentenced in April to at least a decade in prison each, Colin Gray's charges add to a growing trend of parents held responsible when their children commit mass shootings.

Colt Gray linked to username referencing Sandy Hook shooter

Investigators also took note of the Discord account's username – Russian letters that spelled out Lanza when translated, referencing Adam Lanza, the shooter who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

The teenager denied making the online threats and said he had last used a since-deleted Discord account several months earlier. "The only thing I have is TikTok and I just go on there and watch videos," he said.

Colin Gray told the officers that his son was "getting picked on" at school.

He said that during a visit to the school three days earlier, he told the principal that his son "gets flustered under pressure" and "doesn't really think straight" and asked the school to "put your arms around him, get him through seventh grade."

The officer with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office told Colin Gray the Discord account pinged to his old address, according to the video.

Gray responded that he and his son moved after they were evicted from the family's home. His wife, Marcee Gray, had taken the couple's two younger children and moved in with her mother, while he lived with Colt in a rental house. "He struggled at first with the separation and all," Gray said.

The video's release comes days after reports that Marcee Gray called the Apalachee High School counselor about an "extreme emergency" and said her son needed to be found immediately on the morning of the shooting. Gray made the 10-minute call around half an hour before her son allegedly opened fire, the Washington Post reported.

Charles Polhamus, Colt Gray's grandfather, told the New York Post that Marcee Gray rushed to the school after she received a text from her son reading, "I'm sorry, mom." Brown and Polhamus declined to comment to USA TODAY. Marcee Gray could not be reached for comment.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at cmayesosterman@usatoday.com. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.