Georgia School Shooting: Suspected Shooter's Father Arrested, Charged With Manslaughter And Child Cruelty

The incident, involving a semiautomatic rifle, has raised questions about how the teenager obtained the weapon and has intensified scrutiny on both father and son.

Georgia School Shooting: In a shocking development in the Barrow County school shooting case, Georgia state officials have arrested Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray. Colin Gray faces serious charges, including involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children, after allegedly allowing his son access to the weapon used in the tragic attack that killed four people and injured nine others. The incident involved a semiautomatic rifle. It has raised questions about how the teenager obtained the weapon and has intensified scrutiny on both father and son.

The school shooting killed four people and wounded nine others on Wednesday (September 4), saying the father knowingly allowed his son to have the murder weapon. Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with four counts of felony murder and would be tried as an adult, officials said.

His arraignment is set for Friday morning before a Georgia Superior Court judge in Barrow County by video camera.Georgia state and Barrow County investigators say the younger Gray used an "AR platform style weapon," or semiautomatic rifle, to carry out the attack in which two teachers and two 14-year-old students were killed.It remained unclear exactly how the son came into possession of the weapon.Officials identified those killed as two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.Two teachers and seven students were wounded in the attack, some of whom have been released from the hospital. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told reporters.In Georgia, both father and son were interviewed in May 2023 by officials in a neighboring county in connection with online threats about carrying out a school shooting made on the gaming social-media platform Discord, according to investigators.

The Grays told the Jackson County Sheriff's Department they had not made the threats. The father also said he had hunting guns locked in a safe in the house and his son did not have access to them.