Colt Gray Apalachee school shooter who shot dead 4, injured countless others was obsessed with previous other school shootings according to a Discord account found at his family’s Winder, Georgia home as authorities continue to explore shooting motive.
Colt Gray, the 14 year old Georgia gunman who went on a mass shooting blitz at Apalachee High School, Wednesday morning, killing 4, hospitalising 9 and injuring a further 30 was obsessed with previous mass school shooters, including Parkland, Florida killer, Nikolas Cruz, police said.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Gray immediately surrenderedwhen confronted by school resource officers at the scene. He has since been charged with four felony counts of murder, and will be tried as an adult, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed.
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When police searched the teen’s Georgia home following the bloodbath, they reportedly found clues the teenager was ‘obsessed’ with mass shootings – specifically the Parkland massacre in 2018, which left 17 people dead.
Gray was known to the FBI after several tips came in about him last year involving the then 13 year old allegedly stating he wanted to perpetrate a ’school shootings.’
In May 2023, officers from Jackson County questioned both Gray and his father about a Discord channel believed to be linked to the then-13-year-old which allegedly made threats about a school shooting.
The Discord account had a user name written in Russian, and the translation of the letters spelled out the name Lanza, referencing Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary school mass shooting, which left up to 26 dead, including 20 young children, officers said according to the dailymail.
Gray denied he was the author of the threats, telling police he’d shut down his Discord after being repeatedly hacked. He expressed concerns that someone would make those accusations about him.
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According to the NYT, Gray’s father Colin told investigators at the time that his son ‘knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them.’
Colin reportedly assured officers that he would be ‘mad as hell’ if he learned the allegations about his son making threats were true, and that ‘all the guns [would] go away.’
Online, his aunt vowed ‘full throttle blood’ as she came to his defence and claimed her nephew been subjected to ‘abuse’ his entire life. Annie Polhamus Brown‘s posts were deleted last night after a barrage of backlash (go here to see them).
Gray remains in juvenile custody in Georgia, awaiting his first court appearance, which is scheduled for Friday morning. He will be charged as an adult, sheriffs said.
It is unclear how the 14-year-old got ahold of the weapon that was used in the attack, with authorities yet to say what kind of firearm was used.
Of note, documents from 2022 cited by the nytimes, show Grays’s father, Colin Gray owning a military-style weapon – similar to the one discovered in the school hallway.
No known motive was immediately known.
