The mother of the teenager suspected of killing four people during a shooting rampage at a Georgia school called a school counselor to warn him before the attack, the gunman’s aunt said Saturday (7).
Marcee Gray described an “extreme emergency” involving her 14-year-old son, Colt, during a phone call Wednesday morning (4) to the school shortly before the shooting began, Gray’s sister, Annie Brown, told the Washington Post, and later confirmed to CNN .
Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with four counts of murder after he walked in armed and shot students and teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, prosecutors said. He will be tried as an adult.
The Washington Post reports that a 10-minute call was made from Marcee Gray’s phone to the school at 9:50 a.m. Police were notified of the shooting around 10:20 that morning, the Post reported. CNN previously.
According to the Post, Brown has a shared phone plan with the family, which allowed him to see a log of his sister’s calls.
The Barrow County School District did not respond to a request for comment. CNN . The Georgia Bureau of Investigation forwarded the request for comment to the CNN to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
THE CNN contacted the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office on Saturday night. The CNN also reached out to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, who previously said he was unaware of any calls to the school prior to the shooting.
The 14-year-old suspect is expected to face additional charges related to the injured victims, authorities said Friday (6).
Community in mourning
As more information about the circumstances of the attack continues to emerge, a small Georgia community is mourning the two students and two teachers who died Wednesday in the 45th school shooting of 2024 — and the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville.
In the days following the tragic attack, Apalachee students gave harrowing accounts of the courageous actions they took to protect their peers and teachers in the face of senseless violence.
In one classroom, a 14-year-old girl said she blocked the suspect from entering when she saw him pull out a gun. And after a teacher in another classroom was shot, students said they pulled him back inside and used the shirts they were wearing to try to stop the bleeding, while barricading the door with tables and chairs. Even with a gunshot wound, one teenager said he ran to close the classroom door to keep the shooter from entering.
Family members of the victims held stuffed animals as they stood in the Barrow County courtroom Friday during Colt Gray’s arraignment hearing, where he declined to make a statement about the charges against him.
Prosecutors allege Gray fired an AR-style rifle on campus Wednesday morning, killing four people. Nine others were wounded, all but two by gunfire, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Because of his young age, the maximum sentence Gray could face is life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, Judge Currie Mingledorff told the teenager in court. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no one can be sentenced to death for crimes committed before the age of 18.
Gray’s father, Colin Gray, 54, faces a maximum sentence of 180 years in prison on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
An arrest warrant for Colin Gray alleges that he gave his son a firearm “knowing that he was a threat to himself and others.” He declined to make a plea at his first court appearance on Friday, and neither he nor his son applied for bail during the hearings.
“I’m just trying to use the tools in my arsenal to prosecute people for the crimes they commit,” said Barrow County Prosecutor Brad Smith.
THE CNN sought comment from the public defenders representing Colt Gray and his father.
Smith said he expects additional charges against Colt Gray related to victims who were injured during the shooting. Authorities said Thursday that all nine people injured in the shooting are expected to make full recoveries.
The next step in the case against Gray will be a grand jury meeting scheduled for Oct. 17. That will be followed by an arraignment hearing before the court proceedings begin, Smith said. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4, Mingledorff said.
For survivors and others affected, a community recovery center will open in Barrow County on Monday (9) to offer financial assistance, legal services and spiritual and mental health care, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency announced Friday.
This content was originally published in Georgia shooter’s mother called school before attack, aunt says on CNN Brasil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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