The 14-year-old boy suspected of shooting and killing four people at a Georgia high school Wednesday was investigated by the FBI last year for allegedly making online threats to carry out a school shooting.
The shooter, identified as Colt Gray, was a student at the campus. He killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School and injured another nine, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He was arrested and charged with murder.
FBI Atlanta announced it had previously investigated the suspected shooter a year ago in coordination with local police. However, there was no arrest.
“In May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time,” the FBI statement reads. “The online threats contained photographs of guns. Within 24 hours, the FBI determined the online post originated in Georgia and the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for action.”
“The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office located a possible subject, a 13-year-old male, and interviewed him and his father,” the statement continues. “The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them. The subject denied making the threats online. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject.”
“At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels,” it concluded.
The FBI later confirmed the suspect from 2023 was the same as Wednesday’s school shooting, a fact that has prompted some derision against the agency online.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Director Chris Hosey said the shooter used an “AR platform-style weapon” to open fire on students and staff at the school. He said the shooting began at 10:20 a.m. He added that the suspected shooter will be tried as an adult.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith described at a press conference how the shooter surrendered to a deputy working as a school resource officer.
“The shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up, it would end with an [officer-involved shooting],” he said. “He got on the ground and the deputy took him into custody.”
The GBI announced the names of the four fatally shot victims: students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14; and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.
Authorities announced late Thursday that the shooter’s father, Colin Gray, 54, had been arrested. He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the GBI.
“These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon,” said Hosey, per the New York Post. Colt was allegedly given the gun as a Christmas present last year.
“This was done by authorities in Michigan who successfully prosecuted the parents of a teen who killed four students using a firearm his parents purchased for him,” David Gelman, a criminal defense attorney and former deputy district attorney, told Fox News regarding Colin’s arrest. However, Gelman noted that the charges are different in this case because Colin has also been charged with murder. In April, Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of school shooter Ethan Roberts Crumbley, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Colin is being held at Barrow County jail. Bail has not been set yet.
Apalachee High School is located roughly 45 miles from Atlanta, where anti-gun activists, like clockwork, are looking to use the tragedy to advance anti-gun legislation in the state house, per Fox 5 Atlanta.
The Georgia school shooting is not the first time the FBI admitted to a botched investigation of a suspect. The agency announced in 2018 that it had received a tip on the Parkland, Florida, shooter months before he killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The FBI said it received a tip from “a person close to” the shooter, who warned of his “gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.”
“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the time.