In closing arguments, prosecutors say school shooter’s father is responsible for the attack

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — There are two people responsible for the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024, a Barrow County prosecutor said in court Monday.

One is Colt Gray, the then-14-year-old who used an AR-15-style rifle to kill two teachers and two students and wound nine others.

The other is his father, Colin Gray, who prosecutors argue allowed his son access to the firearm and ammunition despite receiving sufficient warnings of his danger to others. Those actions constitute a “conscious disregard for a substantial and unjustifiable risk” and “criminal negligence,” prosecutor Patricia Brooks said, asking the jury to find the father guilty of murder and manslaughter.

“That man was the one person who could have prevented this mass shooting. He was the one man who ensured that Colt Gray had the tools he needed to commit mass murder,” Brooks said in closing arguments Monday. “That man and his son are both responsible for the immense suffering that occurred on September 4. The blood is on their hands.”

In contrast, the defense put the blame on the lone shooter, saying the teen was “smart” and “manipulative” and kept secrets from his father about his violent intentions. Colin Gray was doing his best to make his three children happy and did not have “sufficient warning” his oldest son, Colt, was a risk, attorney Jimmy Berry argued.

“He never in a million years thought that this son that he loved was going to turn out to be a monster that killed these people,” Berry said.

The closing arguments come after a two-week trial that has focused on what Colin Gray knew about his son leading up to the mass shooting at Apalachee High. The jury is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday morning.

He has pleaded not guilty to more than 25 charges, including two counts each of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. The jury can also consider lesser charges of manslaughter if they cannot reach a verdict on the murder counts, the judge said.

The trial is part of a broader push to hold more people accountable for a school shooting, including the shooter’s parents and responding law enforcement officers. This case bears close similarities to the trials and convictions of James and Jennifer Crumbley, whose then-15-year-old son killed four students in 2021 at his high school in Oxford, Michigan.

Colt Gray has admitted to the shooting, according to authorities. Now 16, he has pleaded not guilty to 55 felony counts, including four counts of malice murder. A trial date has not been set.

In the prosecution’s final rebuttal in court Monday, Brooks dug into the details of the case and accused Colin Gray of being a liar, a narcissist and a bad parent.

“Do not give the defendant one more day to peddle his made-up excuses for why he did nothing to stop this tragedy,” she said. “Do not give the defendant one more minute by listening to his lies about how he did everything he could. Do not give him one more second of not being held responsible for what happened on September 4th.”

What we learned at the trial

The state presented its case over about two weeks, including emotional testimony from students and teachers who survived the shooting, policeinterviews with Colin Gray, photos showing unsecured firearms and ammo in a bedroom closet, and testimony from the teen’s mother, grandmother and sister about Colt’s spiraling mental health.

Marcee Gray, the defendant’s estranged wife who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, testified their son was riddled with anxiety, easily agitated and had panic attacks. She said it was “very obvious” he needed professional help, but her husband “just didn’t want to deal with it.”

Notably, the jury saw body-camera footage from May 21, 2023, when deputies with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office visited Colt and Colin Gray’s home after receiving an FBI tip about an online threat to shoot up a school. Colt denied posting the threat, and law enforcement was ultimately not able to substantiate the tip. Colin Gray bought his son the AR-15-style rifle later that year.

The defense called just one witness: Colin Gray himself. He testified he bought his son the firearm and ammunition in an attempt to get him interested in the outdoors and for father-son bonding. He also said he had scheduled counseling at school for Colt’s mental health issues and did not ever perceive his son was a threat.

“He’s a good kid,” the father said through tears. “He wasn’t perfect, nor was I, but to do something that heinous, I don’t know that anybody can see that kind of evil. The Colt I knew, the relationship I had, there was this whole other side of Colt I didn’t know existed.”

In a tense cross-examination, Colin Gray acknowledged multiple firearms were stored in a closet, unsecured and unlocked, and he said Colt sometimes kept the AR-15-style rifle in his bedroom. He struggled to explain Colt’s lack of school attendance his entire eighth grade school year, per school records.

And he admitted he was aware his son had been physically violent and had texted a few weeks before the attack, “Whenever something happens just know the blood is on your hands.” Further, prosecutors argued Colin Gray knew Colt Gray had a “shrine” of photos of Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland, Florida, high school shooter, pinned to his bedroom wall.

The jury watched harrowing surveillance video showing Colt Gray’s movements the morning of the school shooting. School officials and resource officers had gone to intercept Colt Gray after he made several concerning comments that morning, but in a stranger-than-fiction mix-up, they confused him with another student named Kolton Gray.

Colt Gray then armed himself with the rifle – which he had brought to school hidden in his backpack – fired indiscriminately into a math class and shot several people in the hallway. Teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo were killed.

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CNN’s Maxime Tamsett contributed to this report.