Mother of accused school shooter Colt Gray reveals how she begged school to stop him
The mother of accused teen shooter Colt Gray has claimed the school knew about plans for a mass shooting, even before she made a desperate call to warn them.
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The mother of the 14-year-old boy accused of opening fire on his teachers and classmates in the US state of Georgia said when the school counsellor called her to relay her son’s homicidal musings, she urged them to run.
Marcee Gray gave an interview to US network ABC News on Tuesday where she revealed the chaos which played out in the half-hour before the deadly gun rampage at Apalachee High School in Winder.
“The counsellor said, ‘I wanted to let you know that earlier this morning, one of Colt’s teachers had sent me an email saying Colt had been making references to school shootings,’” Ms Gray told ABC News via a video interview from her home.
“Between my gut feelings, the text messages, and now this email, you need to, like, run to the classroom,” she said.
While staff valiantly tried to find Colt, they instead intercepted a boy with a similar name.
By the time they realised their mistake, it was too late.
GRANDAD BELIEVES SON-IN-LAW DESERVES DEATH PENALTY
The grandfather of accused US school shooter Colt Gray says the 14-year-old’s father should get the death penalty for his alleged role in the massacre.
Charles Polhamus, the maternal grandfather of Colt Gray, told the New York Post that his former son-in-law, Colin Gray, should bear much of the blame for the gun rampage in the US state of Georgia.
Four people – two teachers and two students – were killed and nine people were injured in the attack at Apalachee High School in Winder.
The teenager has been charged with four counts of felony murder and Colin Gray has also been charged with murder and manslaughter offences after admitting he bought the rifle his son allegedly used in the killings.
“Spending 11 years with that son of a bitch screaming and hollering every day — it can affect anybody,” Mr Polhamus told the New York Post of his former son-in-law, who was married to his daughter Marcee.
“They couldn’t, they didn’t survive in it,” he said of the family.
“He’s evil,” Polhamus said of Gray. “He needs the death penalty.
Mr Polhamus alleged his grandson had grown up in a dysfunctional household, saying his former son-in-law had squandered the family’s finances due to drug addiction after suffering a back injury.
“Colt is like a lot of young kids these days with the tablets and some of the garbage they pull up, the blood and all the fighting,” Mr Polhamus said.
“If you don’t think that has an impact on young kids, you’re missing the boat, and that was also part of Colt’s problem.
“It’s part of it — and living with a dysfunctional dad who was a screamer and a hollerer,” he added. “No question about it. Prior to going through this, he was a good kid. I will preach that forever.”
The grandfather claimed his daughter, Marcee Gray, was also pulled into addiction, which ultimately cost her custody of Colt and the couple’s other children.
But she remained committed to her kids, he insisted.
“Marcee never did anything to Colt,” he said. “All she did is help him out.”
TEEN’S HAUNTING TEXT TO MOTHER
It came after it emerged that Colt Gray sent his mother a haunting text in the hours before the tragedy.
Mr Polhamus told the New York Post his daughter Marcee Gray was visiting him at his home when 14-year-old Colt sent her a haunting text saying “I’m sorry, mom”.
Marcee frantically called Apalachee High School and warned a counsellor of an “extreme emergency,” a relative told The Washington Post.
“I was the one that notified the school counsellor at the high school. I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him,” she told her sister, according to The Washington Post.
The development came as Marcee broke her silence over the massacre, telling the New York Post the situation was “absolutely horrible”.
Asked if she had anything to say to the families of the victims, which included two students and two teachers, she said: “Nothing to anyone right now. I’ll have my time to speak. It’s not right now.”
It came after Marcee’s criminal past emerged along with her mugshot from an unrelated crime.
Marcee, 43, has served time in prison and her rap sheet spans four different counties in Georgia including offences such as drug use, domestic violence and property damage.
She has also been subject to civil claims of fraud.
It was earlier reported that Colt Gray made a harrowing claim shortly after officers captured him alive.
A source from the sheriff’s office told the New York Post the teen blurted out “I did it” to investigators shortly after his alleged bloody rampage.
‘RIDICULED HIM DAY AFTER DAY’
Colt Gray was bullied for being gay according to his father Colin who has faced court alongside his teen son for the horrific school shooting in Georgia.
The Daily Mail obtained a transcript of the interview between Colin Gray and an investigator from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office which took place last year.
The local officers received a tip off from the FBI that Colt had been linked to a social media account which boasted of plans to conduct a school shooting on Discord – a social media platform popular with gamers.
— FBI Atlanta (@FBIAtlanta) September 4, 2024
While the FBI could not substantiate exactly who was behind the account, they found enough links to suggest local officers pay a visit to the Gray home.
“It was very difficult for him to go to school and not get picked on,” Colin Gray said according to the transcript.
“‘It went from one thing to another … I was trying to get him on the golf team … [they were like] Oh, look, Colt’s gay. He’s dating that guy. Just ridiculed him day after day after day.”
CNN obtained documents which revealed the disturbing wording used in the Discord post.
“im committing a mass shooting and im waiting a good 2-3 years … I cant kill myself yet, cause I’m not contributing anything to culture I need to go out knowing I did,” the post read.
FATHER AND SON APPEAR IN COURT
An expressionless Colt Gray has appeared in court followed by his hysterical father who choked back sobs and rocked himself rhythmically throughout the proceedings in a court in Georgia.
Judge Currie Mingledorff presided over Barrow County Superior Court on Friday morning local time where the cases of both Gray men were briefly mentioned.
The public gallery was filled with the loved ones of the victims who sat silently, many holding one another for support.
One woman clutched a Mickey Mouse stuffed toy to her chest, a heartbroken expression on her face.
“I do want to thank those in the gallery who have interest and who have appeared. I appreciate the decorum that’s been maintained throughout this proceeding – both of these proceedings today,” Judge Mingledorff said.
Both men were shackled with Colt in prison greens and his father in a striped shirt.
Colt’s shaggy bleached hair covered his face as he shuffled in and out of the courtroom under heavy guard.
Barrow County Sheriff’s Office released the mugshot of an ashen-faced Colin Gray taken after his arrest for allegedly buying his troubled son the weapon used in the mass shooting.
COLT GRAY CAME FROM A ‘NEGLECTED HOME’
Details have emerged suggesting Colt Gray grew up in an abusive home.
Citing a former neighbour, the New York Post reported that police and child services regularly visited the Gray home in Jefferson, Georgia.
Lauren Vickers, who lived next-door, said: “There were nights where the mum would lock him and his sister out the house. And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like ‘Mum! mum! mum!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating”.
“No clean clothes, I’m not exaggerating. It was constant abuse,” she told The New York Post.
FATHER OF TEENAGE SCHOOL SHOOTING SUSPECT CHARGED
Citing unnamed sources, CNN reported that the gun used in the shooting, which it described as an AR 15-style assault rifle, had been purchased for the teenager by his father as a holiday gift.
GBI Director Chris Hosey said that the charges against the father stem from “knowingly allowing his son to possess a weapon.”
Georgia does not allow minors to own guns. State and federal law also would prohibit the teenage suspect from buying a handgun, rifle or shotgun.
It comes as the first image of Colt emerged, published by 11 Alive news.
It shows a smiling Colt wearing a thick necklace and a red Georgia Bulldogs T-shirt in a yearbook photo from 2022, showing the alleged gunman at the age of 12 or 13.
Parental responsibility in mass shootings, particularly by minors, has come increasingly under the spotlight in recent months.
“How could you have an assault rifle, a weapon in a house, not locked up and knowing your kid knows where it is?” lamented President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Wisconsin.
“You’ve got to hold parents accountable if they let their child have access to these guns.”
Colt’s aunt, Annie Brown, told the Washington Post that the boy had been “begging for help from everybody around him.”
She said he had been struggling with his mental health prior to the shooting.
“The adults around him failed him,” she lamented.
ALLEGED SHOOTER ‘ASKED TO BE LET INTO CLASSROOM’
Colt Gray attempted to get back into his maths class — but was stopped by a peer after she allegedly saw he had a gun, according to another student.
Lyela Sayarath told CNN that Colt Gray, whom she sat next to in the maths class, left at the start of the period, only to return near the end of it.
Because the doors automatically lock when shut, someone from inside the classroom would need to let him in.
“They almost let him in, but I’m pretty sure she saw that he had a gun and so she backed away,” Sayarath said.
“And then he turned away and that’s when you hear like the first round of fire.”
The alleged gunman had moved on to another classroom, where he opened fire, she said.
When Sayarath and her classmates heard gunshots, everyone dropped to the floor and piled on top of each other.
“The teacher turned off the lights, but we all just kind of piled together. And like I pushed desks in front of us,” she said.
The teen described Gray as “pretty quiet” and revealed that he regularly skipped class.
“Even when he would’ve talked, it was one-word answers or short statements,” she said.
She wasn’t surprised he allegedly opened fire inside the school.
“Just because when you think of like shooters and how they act or things that they do, it’s usually the quiet kid or that’s a stereotype for it to be and he was the one that fit that description in our class,” she added.
VICTIMS OF GEORGIA MASS SHOOTING IDENTIFIED
One of the students who was killed in the shooting has been identified as 14-year-old Mason Schermerhorn, who had autism.
His desperate relatives had shared a photo of the teenager on social media after they couldn’t reach him, according to WSBTV.
Mason’s mother later told the outlet that her son was among the dead at Apalachee High School.
Officials revealed Christian Angulo, also 14, was the other student to have been killed in the mass shooting, alongside teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie.
Mr Aspinwall was a math teacher and defence co-ordinator for Apalachee High School.
Nine others were transported to hospitals with wounds and at least 30 others were believed to been injured, CNN reports.
One of those injured has been identified as special education maths teacher David Phenix, who was shot in the foot and hip and was in a stable condition, the New York Post reported.
‘GUNSHOTS, SCREAMING’: STUDENTS TERRIFIED
Footage of the chaotic evacuation of the school’s students has emerged after it was captured by 15-year-old sophomore Alexsandra Romero, who was sheltering with others inside a classroom.
Romero told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she initially “thought it was just a drill.”
Once people learned the shooting was genuine, however, people began crying and “everybody was trying to find their siblings.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper quoted 11th grade student Henry van der Walt as texting his mother that he thought “there’s a school shooting.”
Minutes later, he texted: “I love you.”
Another student, Ethan Clark, texted his mother, telling her there had been a shooting, according to a post on her Facebook page.
When she asked where he was, he responded: “Class. Someone’s dead.”
When she got to the school she eventually found her son, who had worked to barricade the doors, with his evacuated classmates.
TRUMP, BIDEN REACT TO GEORGIA MASS SHOOTING
Former US president Donald Trump vowed to “heal our world” in response to the school shooting in Georgia.
“It’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons and we’re going to make it better,” Mr Trump said during his town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“We’re going to heal our world. We’re going to get rid of all these wars that are starting all over the place because of incompetence … we’re going to make it better.”
Mr Trump earlier described the mass shooter as a “sick and deranged monster”.
“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” the Republican presidential nominee said in a statement.
“These cherished children were taken from us far too soon.”
I have directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state. (1/2)
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) September 4, 2024
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said it was “outrageous that every day in our country, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.”
“We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
US President Joe Biden said he was mourning the dead.
“Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal,” he said, referring to the frequency of such attacks across the country.
– with AFP
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