Teen accused of killing 4 people at Georgia High School to appear in court – NBC Boston

The 14-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting four people at his Georgia high school is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday, a day after his father was also arrested for allowing his son to have a gun.

According to arrest warrants obtained by The Associated Press, Colt Gray is accused of using a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. Nine people were also wounded in Wednesday’s attack. Authorities have not offered a motive or explained how the alleged gunman obtained the weapon or got it into the school.

The teen’s father, Colin Gray, 54, was charged Thursday in connection with the shooting, including involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder, said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“His charges are directly tied to his son’s actions and allowing him to possess a weapon,” Hosey said. Colin Gray’s initial court appearance has not yet been set.

It’s the latest example of prosecutors holding parents accountable for their children’s actions in school shootings. In April, Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first to be convicted in a mass shooting at a U.S. school. They were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not having a gun at home and responding indifferently to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health before he fatally shot four students in 2021.

The teen, who was charged as an adult with four counts of murder in the deaths of Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, will appear via video from a juvenile detention center for the hearing at the Barrow County Courthouse.

The alleged gunman denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities questioned him last year about a threatening social media post, according to a sheriff’s report obtained Thursday.

Conflicting evidence about the origin of the mail prevented investigators from making an arrest, the report said. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the May 2023 report and found nothing that would have warranted charges at the time.

The attack was the latest in dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including notably deadly shootings in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have sparked heated debates about gun control, but have done little to change gun laws nationwide.

It was the 30th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in the killings, which are defined as events in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

Speaking from Wisconsin on Thursday, President Joe Biden called for restrictions on assault rifles following Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Georgia high school. “As a nation, we can no longer stand for the carnage of gun violence. I’m a gun owner, I’m a strong believer in the (Second Amendment), but we need more than thoughts and prayers.”

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Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporters Charlotte Kramon, Sharon Johnson, Mike Stewart and Erik Verduzco in Winder; Trenton Daniel and Beatrice Dupuy in New York; Eric Tucker in Washington; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed.