The father of a teenager accused of killing four people at a Georgia high school in 2024 was convicted of second-degree murder Tuesday, a landmark victory for prosecutors in their first-in-the-nation effort to bring murder charges against the parent of an alleged school shooter.
Colin Gray, 55, faces a maximum of 180 years in prison after a Barrow County jury found him guilty on 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. The jury deliberated for less than a day following an emotional two-week trial.
Gray took the stand Friday, testifying through tears that he gave his son Colt Gray a rifle as a Christmas gift in 2023 and saw no warning signs it could be used in a mass shooting. Jimmy Berry, an attorney for Gray, said he is a loving parent who struggled at times but was “wired to see the best” in his son.
Prosecutors argued that Gray should be held responsible for failing to secure the weapon he purchased and ignoring clear red flags about his son’s deteriorating mental health amid a turbulent home life.
“He was the one person who could have connected all the dots that pointed exactly at what Colt was going to do,” Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks said in closing arguments Monday. “And he was the one person who could have simply taken the rifle away, and he never did.”
Gray was silent and looked impassive as the verdict was read out in court before he was led away in handcuffs. Sentencing has not been scheduled.
Gray was taken into custody and charged 36 hours after his then-14-year-old son was accused of opening fire with an AR-style rifle at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, in September 2024, killing two teachers and two students and injuring nine.
Colt Gray faces four counts of felony murder and other charges. He is awaiting trial.
The swift arrest of the elder Gray came months after Michigan prosecutors won convictions against Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first parents of a school shooter to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, for their role in the Oxford, Michigan, school shooting their son Ethan Crumbley committed in 2021.
Officials in several states have since followed suit in criminally investigating the parents of accused school shooters. Since the Crumbley and Gray cases, prosecutors have levied felony chargers against the father of a school shooter in Wisconsin and a Texas mother accused of buying ammunition for her 13-year-old son.
Gray and his wife, Marcee Gray, struggled with drug addiction and were inattentive to their son’s problems as Colt Gray allegedly developed paranoia and a fascination with school shootings, The Washington Post previously reported.
Marcee Gray, who separated from Colin Gray about two years before the school shooting and previously pleaded guilty to a family violence offense, was not charged in relation to the shooting.
Debbie Polhamus, Colt Gray’s grandmother, who testified against Colin Gray at his trial, told The Post that Colt Gray was a “thrown-away child.” The father did not arrange mental health treatment for his son after the FBI questioned him for allegedly posting in 2023 in a Discord chat that he would commit a school shooting, The Post reported.
In the days before the shooting, prosecutors said, Colin Gray kept the rifle he bought for his son in Colt Gray’s bedroom, without a gun lock.
The post Colin Gray, father of accused Georgia school shooter, found guilty of murder appeared first on Washington Post.
