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Colt
Gray,
14, is
being
charged
as an
adult
after
the mass
shooting
at a
Georgia
high
school.
Barrow
County
Sheriff's
Office |
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In
historic
case,
father
of
14-year-old
school
shooting
suspect
charged
with
murder
By John
Woodrow
Cox,
Steven
Rich,
and
Sarah
Blaskey
5–6
minutes
Georgia
officials
charged
the
father
of the
suspected
Apalachee
High
gunman
with two
counts
of
second-degree
murder
Thursday
— the
most
severe
ever
filed
against
the
parent
of an
alleged
school
shooter.
The
arrest
came
less
than 36
hours
after
two
students
and a
pair of
teachers
were
gunned
down
with an
AR-15-style
rifle
that,
investigators
allege,
the man
allowed
his
14-year-old
son to
possess.
Along
with
murder,
Colin
Gray,
54, was
charged
with
four
counts
of
involuntary
manslaughter
and
eight
counts
of
cruelty
to
children.
His son,
Colt
Gray,
has been
charged
with
four
felony
counts
of
murder.
The
father
“knowingly
allowed
him to
possess
the
weapon.
His
charges
are
directly
connected
to the
actions
of his
son,”
Chris
Hosey,
director
of the
Georgia
Bureau
of
Investigation,
said at
an
evening
news
conference
where he
provided
no other
details
on what
led to
the
charging
decision
— or its
remarkable
speed.
There
were
warning
signs
before
Wednesday’s
attack,
according
to law
enforcement
officials
and
family
members.
A year
ago,
local
investigators
interviewed
Gray and
his son
about
alleged
online
threats
the teen
had made
to shoot
up a
school,
accusations
that
Colt
Gray
denied
at the
time.
This
week,
the
boy’s
aunt,
Annie
Brown,
told The
Washington
Post
that the
teen had
been
“begging”
the
adults
around
him for
mental
health
support
in
recent
months.
Before
Thursday’s
announcement,
the
teen’s
grandfather,
Charles
Polhamus,
said he
wanted
Colin
Gray
charged
along
with his
son.
“If he
didn’t
have a
damn
gun,”
Polhamus
said,
“he
wouldn’t
have
gone and
killed
anybody.”
Though
Colin
Gray is
in
custody,
his case
had not
been
added to
the
online
county
court
system
by late
Thursday
evening,
so it
remains
unclear
who will
represent
him.
The
charges
come
just
months
after a
mother
and
father
in
Michigan
became
the
first
parents
of a
school
shooter
ever
convicted
of
involuntary
manslaughter,
a less
severe
crime
than
second-degree
murder.
Investigators
found
that, in
November
2021,
James
and
Jennifer
Crumbley
had
bought
their
15-year-old
son a
gun,
didn’t
lock it
up and
ignored
blatant
warning
signs
before
he
opened
fire at
Oxford
High in
Michigan,
killing
four
students.
In
separate
trials,
each was
found
guilty
and
sentenced
to 10 to
15 years
in
prison,
the
maximum
allowed.
“The set
of facts
seems so
similar
and it’s
so
incredibly
difficult
to see
it
repeated,”
said
Karen
McDonald,
the
Oakland
County
prosecutor
who led
the
Michigan
case.
“My
sincerest
hope was
that
there
would
never be
a need
to
charge
parents
in
another
school
shooting.
Securing
a
firearm
takes
less
than 10
seconds.
It would
have
been so
easy to
save the
lives of
four
people.”
Between
the
Columbine
High
shooting
in 1999
and the
one at
Apalachee
25 years
later,
children
have
committed
at least
195
school
shootings,
according
to a
Post
database
that
tracks
gun
violence
on K-12
campuses.
Among
the
cases in
which
the
weapon’s
source
was
identified
by
police,
more
than 80
percent
were
taken
from the
child’s
home or
those of
relatives
or
friends.
Yet just
11 times
have the
adult
owners
of the
weapons
been
charged
with any
crime
because
they
didn’t
lock
them up.
While
cases
against
the
adult
gun
owners
have
been
rare
over the
past 25
years,
the
parents
of all
three
mass
school
shooters
under
the age
of 16
were
convicted
of a
related
crime.
In 2015,
the
father
of a
15-year-old
shooter
in
Washington
state
was
found
guilty
of
illegally
purchasing
the gun
that his
son used
to kill
four
people
and
wound a
fifth.
The
dearth
of
criminal
consequences
has
often
been
blamed
on weak
firearms
laws.
Just 21
states
and D.C.
have
passed
statutes
that
impose
criminal
penalties
on
people
who
store
guns
where
children
could
access
them,
according
to the
Giffords
Law
Center,
an
organization
that
advocates
for
gun-safety
legislation.
For
months,
however,
legal
experts
have
conjectured
that the
precedent
McDonald
set
could
provide
other
prosecutors
cover to
pursue
similar
counts
in
similar
cases.
As in
Georgia
today,
Michigan
had not
passed a
law back
then
requiring
gun
owners
to
safely
store
their
firearms
away
from
children
— a
legal
obstacle
that
didn’t
prevent
McDonald
from
holding
the
Crumbleys
accountable.
But
unlike
the case
in
Michigan,
prosecuted
in a
Democratic-leaning
county
just
outside
Detroit,
Georgia’s
Barrow
County
is
staunchly
conservative,
making
both the
seriousness
and
speed of
the
charges
against
Colin
Gray
especially
notable.
In past
cases,
attorneys
have
often
taken
weeks or
months
to
decide
whether
to
pursue
cases
against
the
adult
gun
owners.
Prosecutors
and law
enforcement
officials
across
the
country
who are
struggling
to
grapple
with gun
violence
will
likely
watch
the
Georgia
prosecution
closely
to see
how it
plays
out,
legally
and
politically,
in a
state
with
loose
firearms
laws and
a
pro-gun
culture.
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