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The mother of the teen gunman accused of killing four people in a mass shooting at a Georgia high school has written an open letter to the victims’ families, claiming her son was “not a monster.”
Marcee Gray, the mother of 14-year-old Colt Gray, said she would “personally never forgive myself” for the “nightmare” that unfolded at Apalachee High School, in Barrow County, last week.
“If I could take the place of Mason and Christian, I would without a second thought,” Marcee Gray wrote in the letter shared with CNN, referring to the two 14-year-olds killed in the mass shooting on September 4.
She later added her “heart breaks for the two teachers who gave their lives while in the service of teaching and protecting our children.” The teachers have been identified as Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
“We are all in a living nightmare right now, and I will personally never forgive myself for what has happened,” Gray wrote.
“My son Colt is not a monster. He is my oldest baby. He is quiet, thoughtful, caring, funny, and extremely intelligent. Please pray for him and the rest of our family, as I am praying for all of you every moment of every day.”
Gray had received a text the morning of the shooting from her son that read: “I’m sorry mom,” the suspect’s grandfather previously told CNN.
She had reportedly called the school at 9:50 a.m. — around 30 minutes before police responded to the scene — to warn of an “extreme emergency.” She had been told by a school counselor that her son had been making references to school shootings.
Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of murder and will face trial as an adult, according to prosecutors. If convicted, he could spend up to life in prison.
His maternal grandfather, Charles Polhamus, 81, said that his grandson was a “good kid” before he spent his formative years with a “dysfunctional dad who was a screamer and a hollerer.” He described Colin Gray as “evil.”
“Spending 11 years with that son of a b**** screaming and hollering every day — it can affect anybody,” he told the New York Post.
Colin Gray — who, according to investigators, gave his son the AR-15-style rifle that was used in the shooting — has been charged with four counts of manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children.
