Guilty verdict for US father of teenage school shooter
Prosecutors say Colin Gray, 55, could have prevented his son from killing four people at a high school in Georgia in 2024.
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Notable Quotes
"After seeing sign after sign of his son's deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school-shooter obsession, the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off."
— Patricia Brooks , Other
"This is the person who went into the high school and shot and killed four people he didn't even know and injured scores of others."
— Jimmy Barry , Other
"Christian [Angulo] acted, and became a hero."
— Patricia Brooks , Other
"But God gave us a duty to protect our children, and I hope that we remember that, as parents, as community members, to protect our children because that is our God-given duty."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"That is my son, so I am, as a parent, obviously willing to take responsibility for him because he can’t take responsibility for himself."
— Deja Taylor , Other
"After seeing sign after sign of his son’s deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school shooter obsession, the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off."
— Patricia Brooks , Other
"That’s real important because that really is the key to this case, is what did he know? Did he know that Colt would do this?"
— Jimmy Berry , Other
"But God gave us a duty to protect our children, and I hope that we remember that, as parents, as community members, to protect our children because that is our God-given duty."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"I would have never given my 14-year-old child a firearm like that... I think most parents wouldn't have done that."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"God gave us a duty to protect our children. And I hope that we remember that as parents, as community members... because that is our God-giving duty."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"But God gave us a duty to protect our children, and I hope that we remember that, as parents, as community members, to protect our children because that is our God-given duty."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"I could have done better."
— Colin Gray , Other
"But God gave us a duty to protect our children, and I hope that we remember that, as parents, as community members, to protect our children because that is our God-given duty."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"Prosecutors say Colin Gray should be held accountable for giving his son the weapon used in the shooting as a Christmas gift, despite alleged threats and warning signs that the boy was mentally unstable."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"I struggle with it every day. He's a good kid, you know? He wasn't perfect, but to do something, uh, that heinous, like I don't, I don't know if anybody would see that type of evil."
— Colin Gray , Other
"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, going to school and doing all the things you should, you graduate and you're 18, this will be your gun."
— Colin Gray , Other
"I would have never given my 14-year-old child a firearm like that... I think most parents wouldn't have done that."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"God gave us a duty to protect our children. And I hope that we remember that as parents, as community members... because that is our God-giving duty."
— Brad Smith , Executive
"It wasn’t like one parent missed one warning. This was multiple warnings over a lengthy period of time."
— Brad Smith , Executive
Key People
Abigail Zwerner is a teacher who was shot by a student in Virginia.
Brad Smith is the vice chair and president of Microsoft.
Christian Angulo was one of the victims of the school shooting at Apalachee High School.
Christina Irimie was a teacher who was fatally shot during the school shooting.
Colin Gray is the father of a teenage boy accused of a mass shooting at a high school in Georgia.
Colt Gray is a 14-year-old boy accused of carrying out a shooting at Apalachee High School.
Deja Taylor faced prosecution after her son brought a gun to school and injured a teacher.
Ethan Crumbley was responsible for a mass shooting at Michigan's Oxford High School.
James Crumbley served time for involuntary manslaughter related to his son's school shooting.
Jeffrey Rupnow is charged with giving a dangerous weapon to his daughter who committed a school shooting.
Jennifer Crumbley, along with her husband, was held criminally responsible for their son's school shooting.
Jimmy Barry is an attorney representing Colin Gray.
Lawyer for Colin Gray.
Marcee Gray is the estranged wife of Colin Gray and mother of Colt Gray, who testified in the trial.
Mason Schermerhorn was a 14-year-old student who was fatally shot during the school shooting.
Natalie Rupnow is a teenager who killed a student and a teacher at her school before taking her own life.
Patricia Brooks is an Assistant District Attorney involved in the prosecution of Colin Gray.
Richard Aspinwall was a teacher who was fatally shot during the school shooting.
Robert Crimo III was responsible for a mass shooting during a July Fourth parade in Illinois.
Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to misdemeanors for endorsing his son's gun permit.
Tags
All Coverage
Prosecutors say Colin Gray, 55, could have prevented his son from killing four people at a high school in Georgia in 2024.
Colin Gray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter ... , in the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia.
A Barrow County jury found Colin Gray guilty on all counts in connection with the 2024 mass shooting at Apalachee ... , including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children.
Colin Gray was found guilty ... invol ... , in the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia.
Colin Gray, 55, was convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for providing his son, Colt Gray, with a rifle used in a 2024 school shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, resulting in four deaths and nine injuries.
Colin Gray was convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after giving his 14-year-old son access to a gun involved in a 2024 school shooting that killed four people at Apalachee High School.
In the trial of Colin Gray, prosecutors argued he is partly responsible for a 2024 school shooting at Apalachee High School, committed by his 14-year-old son, Colt Gray, who used a rifle given to him by his father for Christmas.
Colin Gray, 55, faces a maximum of 180 years in prison after a Barrow County jury found him guilty of 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder, in connection with the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting.
After roughly two weeks of testimony, jurors deliberated for just a few hours before convicting 54-year-old Colin Gray on more than two dozen charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, related to the 4 September fatal shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
Colin Gray, the father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, is handcuffed and escorted out of the room after jury deliberations at his trial at Barrow County Courthouse in Winder, Ga., on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. The 55-year-old was found guilty to second-degree murder and other charges for allegedly giving his son the AR-style rifle used in the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting that killed two students and two teachers.
The jury found Colin Gray, the man whose teenage son is accused of killing two students and two teachers in a shooting at Georgia's Apalachee High School, guilty of second-degree murder and all other charges. On Tuesday, after just a few hours of deliberating and two weeks of witness testimony, the jury announced that they had come to a verdict.
Colin Gray was found guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. A Georgia jury found Colin Gray guilty Tuesday on charges including second-degree murder and manslaughter, stemming from a 2024 mass shooting allegedly committed by his teenage son with a rifle he gifted him as a Christmas present.
Colin Gray, 55, was found guilty on all charges after his 14-year-old son, Colt Gray, opened fire in Apalachee High School, killing two students and two teachers and injuring seven others.
At the trial of Colin Gray, the father of accused Georgia school shooter Colt Gray, testimony focused on whether the father should be held accountable for giving his son a rifle despite alleged signs of mental instability. Colin testified that the gun was a Christmas gift meant to bond over hunting and shooting.
The father of the accused Apalachee High School shooter, Colin Gray, was found guilty on all counts on Tuesday morning in Barrow County by a jury from Hall County. Sentencing has been deferred. Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before returning a unanimous verdict. Gray, 55, now faces up to 180 years in prison. Sentencing was deferred.
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