ATLANTA — Colin Gray testified Friday in his murder trial, saying he never noticed warning signs from his son before the deadly school shooting that killed two teachers and two students and wounded several others at a Georgia high school northeast of Atlanta on Sept. 4, 2024.
Gray faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter, after prosecutors say he bought his son, Colt, an AR-style rifle the teenager used to carry out the attack at Apalachee High School. Taking the stand for the first time, Gray insisted he had no indication his son was capable of violence, CBS News reported.
"To do something that heinous … I don't know if anybody could see that kind of evil," Gray said.
Colt was 14 at the time of the shooting. He faces 55 counts, including murder in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault.
Earlier in the trial, on Feb. 17, ninth-grade students took the stand and described the horror of being shot during their algebra class. One girl testified she saw a hole in her wrist and began screaming moments after the gunfire started.
"I was also worried that I was going to die and how that would affect my parents because my dad has a heart problem," she said.
As paramedics carried her out of the building, she passed Colt Gray on the floor with his hands behind his back.
"I remember yelling at him that we were kids, because we were kids," she said.
Other students described lasting trauma. One girl who sustained a gunshot wound to her left shoulder said the experience continued to affect her more than a year later.
"Just seeing what I saw that day, it just sticks with me … and not being able to trust certain people, trust people," she said.
Another female student testified about the anxiety that followed her home.
"Even to go on a walk around my neighborhood, anxiety would fill my head, and I feel like somebody driving past me would shoot me," she said.
Many students said they were still in counseling to deal with nightmares, fears of loud noises and anxiety at school and at home.
Prosecutors say Colt Gray carefully planned the attack. According to Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith, Colt boarded the school bus that morning with a semiautomatic rifle in his book bag, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board. He left his second-period class, emerged from a bathroom with the gun and then shot people in a classroom and hallways.
The state painted a different picture of Colin Gray during cross-examination Friday, alleging a pattern of behavioral issues in Colt dating back to first grade. Prosecutors showed what they described as evidence of self-harm — cuts the teenager had made to his arm — and pressed Gray on whether he recognized them as a warning sign.
"You didn't know that that's a cry for help?" the prosecutor asked.
"I did not know it's a cry for help, no sir," Gray said.
Colin Gray Trial: Video shows son with concealed AR-15-style rifle before Apalachee school shooting
Prosecutors argue Gray fueled the tragedy by gifting his son the AR-style rifle used in the shooting and failing to address concerns about his mental health. Smith told the jury that in September 2021, Colt used a school computer to search the phrase "how to kill your dad," prompting school resource officers to visit the home, though it was determined to be a misunderstanding.
Sixteen months before the shooting, in May 2023, law enforcement acted on a tip from the FBI after an online shooting threat concerning an elementary school was traced to a computer at the Gray home. Colin Gray was told about the threat and asked whether his son had access to guns. Gray replied that he and his son "take this school shooting stuff very seriously," according to Smith.
That Christmas, Colin Gray gave his son the AR-style rifle as a gift and continued to buy accessories and ammunition afterward. Gray said he gave Colt the rifle as a way to manage his son's behavior.
"This is a weapon that I want you to shoot when we go to the range, and if you keep doing really good in school, this will be your gun," Gray said.
Prosecutors have also said Colin Gray knew his son had a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that Colt's parents had discussed their son's fascination with school shooters but decided it was in a joking context and not a serious issue.
Three weeks before the shooting, Colin Gray received a text from his son: "Whenever something happens, just know the blood is on your hands," according to Smith.
Investigators also say Colin Gray had sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, writing about his son: "We have had a very difficult past couple of years and he needs help. Anger, anxiety, quick to be volatile. I don't know what to do." Smith said Gray never followed through on getting his son admitted to an inpatient facility.
For weeks, witnesses — including Gray's estranged wife, Marcee — have detailed a home and school life defined by turbulence.
"He had a lot of pent-up anger inside, and he was very aggressive and unpredictable," Marcee said.
The defense maintains that Colt hid his plans from his father.
"That's the difference between tragedy and criminal liability," defense attorney Brian Hobbs said. "You cannot hold someone criminally responsible for failing to predict what was intentionally hidden from them."
This case is one of several around the nation where prosecutors are trying to hold parents responsible after their children are accused in fatal shootings.
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