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A 14-year-old student was named as the suspected gunman who allegedly opened fire at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, killing four people, authorities said.
Colt Gray was taken into custody and will be charged as an adult, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at a news conference hours after the shooting.
Police released Gray’s booking photo on Thursday afternoon. He is expected to appear in court on Friday morning. Investigators are now looking into the motive of the suspected gunman.
Two male students, both aged 14, as well as a male and a female teacher, were killed in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, an hour outside of Atlanta, Hosey confirmed.
Mason Schermerhorn, 14, was identified by family members as one of the dead students. The other deceased victims were identified late on Wednesday as teachers Christina Emery and Richard Aspinwall, and student Kristen Angolo, 14.
Schermerhorn, who is autistic, was named by his mother to Channel 2 Action News. Family members had shared his photo on social media when they were unable to reach him.
Special education teacher David Phenix was among the nine people hospitalized. “We are so thankful for all the texts, calls, and messages about my dad, David Phenix. There was a shooting this morning at Apalachee High School and my dad was shot in the foot and in the hip, shattering his hip bone. He arrived to the hospital alert and awake. He just got out of surgery and is stable,” his daughter Katie Phenix posted on Facebook.
Who was the suspected shooter?
Colt Gray is a 14-year-old student believed to be a freshman at Apalachee High School.
Lyela Sayarath, a student at Apalachee High School, described Gray, as “quiet” and said he would often “skip class.” She told CNN that she wasn’t surprised because Gray fit the description of a shooter.
Sayarath, who said she was sitting next to Gray in their Algebra 1 class just moments before the shooting, recalled how he left the room around 9:45 a.m. He didn’t take the bathroom pass with him, so she assumed he was skipping class.
“He wasn’t there most times,” Sayarath said. “He either wouldn’t be there or skip class. But even what he would have talked it would have talked it would have just been one word answers or just shot statements.”
What charges does he face?
Gray faces multiple charges of murder. He will be tried as an adult, officials said.
What was the motive?
Gray has been interviewed by investigators, but a motive behind the shooting has not been revealed.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said at a news conference on Wednesday that they are not aware of any connection between the suspected shooter and the victims.
Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said part of the investigation is “looking into every aspect of that individual, his connection here at the school.”
The FBI revealed on Wednesday night that it had investigated the suspect, who used an “AR platform” weapon in the shooting, for allegedly making online threats to carry out a school shooting in May 2023.
The Bureau’s Atlanta office put out a statement confirming an investigation was carried out after photos of guns were posted online.
The suspect, who was then 13, was found by Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputies and interviewed, according to the FBI. His father told investigators that the family had hunting guns in the house but that the teenager did not have “unsupervised access” to them.
The boy denied that he had made the threats and the FBI says that there was “no probable cause” to arrest him or take any further legal action.
Were there warning signs?
Law enforcement officials in Georgia told CNN that the school received a phone call this morning warning that there would be shootings at five schools and that Apalachee would be the first.
It is not known who placed the call and officials are investigating the call and where it originated.
Investigators say the gunman entered the building at around 10:20 a.m. and opened fire.
Authorities responded to the school shortly before 10:30 a.m. for an “active shooting.”
Smith said a resource officer at the school engaged with the shooter and took him into custody.
“Obviously the shooter was armed and our school resource officer engaged him and the shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up, that it would end with an OIS — an Officer Involved Shooting,” Smith said.
“He gave up, got on the ground and the deputy took him into custody.”
Who were his parents?
Gray’s parents are Colin and Marcee, according to public records.
Marcee Gray was first arrested in March 2007 on five vehicle-related misdemeanors, including reckless driving, improper right turn and DUI. She pleaded guilty in June 2008, paying a $600 fine and receiving 12 months probation, plus 40 hours of community service, according to a review of Fulton County, Georgia court records. She “successfully completed all conditions of probation” in August 2010, the docket shows.
In November 2023, Gray was arrested on a pair of felony drug possession charges after getting caught in her car with “a glass jar with a crystal-like substance known to be methamphetamine,” and a “red clear baggie with a powder substance known as fentanyl,” according to an arrest warrant filed in Barrow County Superior Court. She was also hit with misdemeaors for having “a clear glass pipe used for the ingestion of narcotics,” a baggie containing “multiple” tablets of cyclobenzaprine, a prescription pain pill, and for affixing someone else’s license plate to her Nissan Rogue.
Gray ultimately pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors: second-degree criminal damage to property, criminal trespass, and use of a license plate to conceal identity. Although she faced a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, Gray was sentenced to a month-and-a-half in jail, which was all but canceled out with credit for time served, plus roughly five years of felony probation, according to plea documents in the case. The judge forbade her from using drugs or alcohol, and she was barred from having contact with her husband.
Gray also faced civil charges brought in 2019 by a Chevy dealer who accused her and her husband of passing a bad check as a down payment, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (The final disposition of the case is unclear.)
How did he get the gun?
Investigators are still working on learning how the suspect accessed the gun and got it into the school.
They have not yet described what type of gun was used in the shooting.
A teenager would not have lawful access to buy a handgun, rifle, or shotgun under state law and federal law.
Individuals must be 18 or older to purchase handguns in the state, according to the Giffords Center, and federal law imposes the same age limit for the sale of shotguns and rifles, per the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
During an interview with the Jackson County Sheriffs’ Office last year, Gray’s father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but that the teen did not have unsupervised access to them, according to the FBI.
What happens next?
Gray will likely appear in court in the coming days.
Barrow County schools will be closed for the rest of the week, but the school system offices will remain open to support those affected by the tragedy.
Apalachee High School has about 1,900 students, according to records from Georgia education officials. It became Barrow County’s second-largest public high school when it opened in 2000, according to the Barrow County School System.
