The father of Colt Gray, a 14-year-old accused of fatally shooting four people at Apalachee High School in Georgia, has pleaded not guilty to charges blaming him for the September massacre carried out by his son.
Colin Gray is facing 29 charges — including two counts of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children — related to the shooting at his son’s high school in Winder, a Georgia suburb some 50 miles outside Atlanta.
Gray did not appear in court for the hearing on Thursday, leaving his lawyer to enter a plea on his behalf and waive his right to a formal arraignment.
Armed with an AR-15-style rifle, Colt Gray opened fire inside his school on the morning of Sept. 4. Police said he killed two teachers and two students before he was confronted by a school resource officer and surrendered on the scene.
The victims were later identified as math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, as well as students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14. Another nine people were hospitalized in the wake of the classroom carnage.
Colin Gray was arrested one day later, with authorities arguing that he facilitated the shooting by allowing his son to possess a deadly weapon. Investigators previously testified that he purchased the rifle allegedly used in the shooting as a Christmas present for his son last year — despite the fact that they’d been interviewed by law enforcement officials in May 2023 in connection with online threats Colt allegedly made to carry out a school shooting.
Prosecutors also argued that Colin was aware his son had an obsession with school shooters to the point that he even had a shrine to the gunman behind the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Colt Gray was separately indicted last month on 55 counts, including four counts of malice murder and four counts of felony murder. He has also pleaded not guilty and will be tried as an adult.
With News Wire Services
