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As a Georgia high school reels from the mass shooting that left two students and two teachers dead, details have emerged that paint a picture of the “hostile” and gun “obsessed” homelife of suspected shooter, Colt Gray.
The 14-year-old has been charged in the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53 in Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder. And now, so has his father, Colin Gray.
The teenager has been charged with four felony counts of murder and will be tried as an adult, while his 54-year-old father — who allegedly gave his son a high-powered AR-15-style rifle for Christmas — is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Colt Gray was reportedly “obsessed” with mass school shootings, and investigators quizzed him last year over online threats made about a school shooting.
His dad owned up to having guns in the family home, telling an investigator in FBI audio footage last year: “There’s nothing - nothing loaded. But they are [in the house]. We actually do a lot of shooting, we do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year.”
And when authorities searched the suspect’s bedroom at his home this week, they found documents believed to be written by him that referenced the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, where Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and wounded 17 others. Law enforcement sources told The New York Times the teen was “obsessed” with the shooting.
Meanwhile, Gray’s parents were going through a bitter separation and custody battle and the family was on the radar of the department of family and children’s services, the GBI said at a press conference.
It is understood the teenager was living with his father during the split, according to the BBC.
The teenager’s own maternal grandfather told CNN the boy “lived in an environment that was hostile.” Charles Polhamus said: “His dad beat up on him, I mean, I’m not talking about physical, but screaming and hollering, and he did the same thing to my daughter.”
And there were drug and alcohol problems at home. Gray’s mother, Marcee Gray, has been arrested mutliple times and accused of drug offenses. She has also done a stint in rehab, according to family.
She was first arrested in March 2007 on five vehicle-related misdemeanors, including reckless driving, improper right turn, and DUI, court documents show.
Marcee 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, Marcee was arrested on a pair of felony drug possession charges after allegedly 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 misdemeanors 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, records show.
Marcee 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, Marcee 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.
Marcee 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.)
A neighbor revealed there were “problems immediately” when the family moved into the area in 2022.
Lauren Vickers told the New York Post: “There were nights where the mom would lock him and his sister out the house. And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like ‘Mom! mom! mom!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating.”
She added: “It was constant abuse. It’s very, very sad.”
Marcee’s younger sister, Annie Polhamus Brown, has been highly critical of her sibling’s parenting skills, and has previously lashed out on social media about it. Following the horrific school shooting, Polhamus Brown said she was focused primarily on the victims her nephew is accused of killing and maiming.
“Our hearts and humble prayers are with the families affected by this devastating tragedy,” she told The Independent.
