The father of a 14-year-old accused of killing four people at his Georgia high school was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the attack, the state Bureau of Investigation said.
The father, Colin Gray, 54, was also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, officials said at a news conference Thursday night.
The charges against Mr. Gray are “directly connected to the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a firearm,” Chris Hosey, the bureau’s director, said at a news conference. He declined to provide details, including what evidence he had given the authorities about possible reasons to charge Mr. Gray in the attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga.
Earlier Thursday, the teenager’s grandfather, Charlie Polhemus, said he believed his grandson was responsible for what happened, but he also placed some of the blame for the turmoil in the teenager’s home life with her father, who was estranged from Mr. Polhemus. Daughter “My grandson did what he did because of the environment he lived in,” Mr Polhemus said.
When the investigators Investigating an online threat Speaking to Mr. Gray last year, he said he was teaching his 13-year-old son about hunting and guns to distract him from video games. The juvenile denied making the threat “Shoot up a middle schooland claimed that his account on social media platform Discord was hacked, According to the transcript of the May 2023 interview.
Mr. Gray told the investigator that he often discussed “all the school shootings, things that happen.” He also suggested that he emphasized the dangers of using the weapon.
“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and how to use them,” Mr. Gray told an investigator at the time.
It was unclear Thursday evening whether the father or son had a legal representation. A man who answered the door of the Gray home Wednesday night declined to speak to a reporter.
Eviction records from two years ago show Mr. Gray was in possession of several firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle. Officials said one type of weapon was used in the Wednesday morning shooting.
Georgia lawmakers have steadily loosened gun laws in recent years, including a 2022 measure that allows most residents to carry firearms without a permit. The state is not one, for example, that penalizes failure to store firearms safely.
It was unclear what precedent Georgia has for charging parents in connection with serious crimes committed by their children. Asked on Thursday, Mr Hosey said he was unaware of the details.
Although four people, two teachers and two children, were killed in the attack, Mr. Gray has been charged with only two counts of second-degree murder. In Georgia, that charge applies when a person is charged with child cruelty in the second degree, which includes criminal negligence.
The charges in Georgia came months later Mother and father in Michigan In 2021 was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of his teenage son at a high school. Four students were killed and seven others injured in Michigan’s deadliest school shooting.
The parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were the first in the country to be charged directly for their child’s death in a mass shooting, and the legal action was seen as part of a national effort to hold some parents accountable for enabling deadly violence. by their children.
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