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ACCUSED school shooter Colt Gray made several chilling posts a year before he allegedly opened fire at Apalachee High School, killing four.
FBI agents investigated then-13-year-old Gray after he allegedly posted school shooting threats online.
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Investigators with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office spoke with the boy and his father about threats made on the social media platform Discord.
The account made several posts referencing a future mass shooting with screenshots of guns, according to an incident report from May 2023.
“I’m committing a mass shooting and im (sic) waiting a good 2-3 years,” read a post from the account investigators linked to Colt Gray.
“I cant (sic) kill myself yet, cause I’m not contributing anything to culture I need to go out knowing I did.”
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The account also made references to Adam Lanza, the perpetrator behind the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
The Discord user’s name was written in Russian, which when translated spelled out “Lanza.”
In a separate post, the user revealed a desire to target an elementary school and expressed anger with transgender people being accepted in society.
The user posted a photo of two guns with the words, “I’m ready.”
FBI agents informed the sheriff’s department that a “Colin Gray” — the name of Colt Gray’s father – was behind the account.
However, Colin Gray, 54, told investigators that he had no idea about the messaging platform.
“Colin stated he does not know what Discord is, stating that he works full time and does not play video games,” investigators wrote in their report.
Eyes began to turn toward Colt, who told investigators that he stopped using Discord because “too many people kept hacking his account, and he was afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes.”
The teen denied making threats when he spoke to officials.
“Colt expressed concern that someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” the report read.
When asked about the Lanza username, Colin said neither him nor his son spoke Russian.
Colt was described as “calm and reserved” during the interview, officials said.
Still, Jackson County deputies pressed the father and son after learning that firearms were kept in the home.
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Colin Gray told investigators that the guns were hunting rifles and that “Colt is allowed to use them when supervised but does not have unfettered access to them,” according to the report.
Investigators urged Colin to “keep the firearms locked away” and to pull Colt out of school until the matter was resolved.
However, records show that the school year had already ended at the time of the incident.
Investigators ended the probe after determining they couldn’t link Colt or Colin to the account.
FATHER ARRESTED
The deadly attack was carried out in Apalachee High School on Wednesday, a year later.
A day after his son allegedly gunned down two students and two teachers at the school, Colin Gray was hit with a slew of charges.
He told investigators that he bought the gun allegedly used in the shooting as a Christmas gift for his son last year.
Colin could receive between 10 and 30 years for second-degree murder charges and second-degree cruelty to children.
However, he also faces a minimum life sentence if found guilty of malice murder and felony murder.
State officials told the media that the father “knowingly” let his son have a weapon.
“We take incidents like this very seriously across the state,” Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said during a press conference.
Meanwhile, Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder but will not face the death penalty as he is a juvenile.
Timeline of Apalachee High School shooting
Below is a timeline of the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4:
8:30 am – First period begins at AHS
9:45 am – Suspect Colt Gray leaves algebra class, according to his classmate
10:20 am – Police start to receive calls about an active shooter
10:23 am – Law enforcement officers are dispatched to school and arrive in minutes
10:45 am – AHS sends message to parents saying the school is in a hard lockdown
11:20 am – Students are evacuated to the football field
11:56 am – Barrow County Sheriff’s Office reports a suspect is in custody
2:13 pm – Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirms four people were killed and nine were hospitalized with injuries
The teen allegedly opened fire around 10:20 in the morning on Wednesday and allegedly confessed to police after surrendering to authorities, telling cops, “I did it,” while being read his rights, the Daily Mail reported.
Teachers Cristina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall, as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, were killed in the horror attack.
Nine others were injured and are all “expected to make a full recovery,” said Hosey.
The GBI said the investigation remains fluid at this time.
DYSFUNCTIONAL HOME LIFE
Family members of the alleged shooter have revealed to The New York Times that the teen had a “troubled life.”
“My grandson did what he did because of the environment that he lived in,” his grandfather, Charles Polhamus said.
“The adults in his life let him down,” his aunt, Annie Brown, added.
Brown added that her nephew was “actively seeking help” for his mental issues but didn’t get the support he needed from those around him.
The boy’s mother, Marcee Gray, had a lengthy rap sheet and would scream and holler at her son, said Polhamus.
Marcee lost custody of her children after separating from their father and failing a drug test.
Lauren Vickers, who lived next to the Grays, claimed the mother would regularly lock the children out of the home and didn’t wash their clothes.
“There were nights where the mom would lock him and his sister out the house,” she told The New York Post.
“And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like ‘Mom! mom! mom!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating.”
Vickers added that Marcee’s youngest child would go into her yard sometimes to ask for food and that the kids often had “no clean clothes.”
“It was constant abuse. It’s very, very sad,” she said.
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