WINDER, Ga. — The father of a 14 year old boy accused of committing a deadly mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia pleaded not guilty to the charges against him on Thursday.
Colin Gray was not in the courtroom, but his attorneys told the judge during a brief hearing that their client has pleaded not guilty and waived a formal arraignment. In Georgia, it is common for defendants to enter a plea and waive the arraignment.
Gray and his son, Colt Gray, were both indicted in the September 4 shooting that left people dead two students and two teachers and injured others. Colt Gray is being charged as an adult and was indicted on 55 charges, including murder and 25 charges of aggravated assault in high school. His father was charged on 29 counts, including two counts of manslaughter and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Both are also facing multiple counts of cruelty to children.
Foal Gray entered a not guilty plea last month and also waived the arraignment.
Colt Gray is being held at a juvenile detention facility in Gainesville, while Colin Gray, 54, is being held at the Barrow County Jail. Neither has attempted bail.
The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were injured, seven of whom were hit by gunfire.
Colin Gray is the first adult known to be charged in connection with a school shooting in Georgia. His indictment is the latest example of prosecutors holding parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings. Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first to be convicted in a US mass school shooting, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not having a firearm at home and for behaving indifferently to signs of deteriorating mental health of their son. he murdered four students in 2021.
Investigators have said Colt Gray carried a semi-automatic assault rifle on a school bus, with the barrel sticking out of his book bag, wrapped in a poster board. They say the boy carefully plotted the shooting at the 1,900-student high school northeast of Atlanta, drawing diagrams and listing potential body counts in a notebook. He left the second period classroom and emerged from a bathroom with the gun before shooting people in a classroom and hallways.