A 14-year-old boy fatally shot two students and two teachers and injured nine others during a shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, marking the first mass school shooting in the U.S. since the start of the academic year.
The suspect, Colt Gray, was arrested shortly after the incident at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, according to investigators.
Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, identified Gray at a press conference, stating that he would be charged and tried as an adult. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith reported that Gray, armed with a semiautomatic rifle resembling an “AR platform style weapon,” was quickly confronted by school deputies. The suspect surrendered without resistance.
Who is Colt Gray?
Colt Gray, the alleged shooter who killed four people at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, has been under the Law Enforcement Agencies’ radar since 2023. Authorities have revealed that the FBI interviewed Gray in 2023 after receiving anonymous tips about online threats of a school shooting. However, no arrest was made at the time.
The FBI said that in May 2023, investigators met with Gray and his father regarding the threats, which included images of guns. Gray’s father confirmed that the household contained hunting guns, but assured agents that Colt did not have unsupervised access to them.
Gray, then 13, denied making the threats, and officials informed local schools to monitor him, but there was insufficient evidence for an arrest or further legal action at the time.
