The father of suspected Georgia school shooter Colt Gray on Friday took the stand in his own defense at trial, where he is accused of providing his teenage son access to a firearm before the 2024 massacre.
Colin Gray, 55, pleaded not guilty on two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 20 counts of cruelty to children and five counts of reckless conduct. His then 14-year-old son, Colt Gray, is accused of opening fire at Apalachee High School on Sept. 4, 2024, killing two students, two teachers, and wounding nine others.
The tenth day of the trial kicked off with testimony from the 55-year-old, who recounted his volatile relationship with Colt and his attempts to bond with his teenage son over hunting. He also testified about receiving a visit from law enforcement prior to the shooting after receiving a tip from the FBI that his son was involved in an online conversation about school shootings.
Gray told the court that when his son was in the sixth grade, he got behind the school’s firewall to search for ways to kill him. Gray said he was concerned and had a conversation with his son when he found out about it months later, warning him that it was a very serious matter.
When Colt got to the seventh grade, Gray said, he expressed that several kids were bullying him, and he was eating lunch by himself.
“He was a real quiet kid. He was super shy, is the best way I can put it,” Gray said.
Around this time, Gray said he split with Colt’s mother, Marcee Gray, who he said was allegedly using substances. Marcee Gray moved out of their home with their two younger children. Colt stayed with him, he said, adding that he went to Colt’s school to speak to counselors and find a way to get him help and away from any bullying he was encountering.
Gray also said he thought of hunting as a way to help his son cope.
“My original thought was this would be a great way to bond with my son away from his mother and everybody else, and just kind of use that time as I did as a kid growing up to just kind of pretty much comfortable place doing something we like to do, and he can talk to me openly and freely about what challenges he may or may not be having,” Gray said.
Gray testified that he took his son to shooting ranges to practice and then to hunt for deer. He also played golf with his son and bought him a guitar because he’d always been interested in music.
He also recalled buying his son a rifle for Christmas, telling him it would be his gun if he kept attending school and doing well.
Gray also recalled that before the shooting, he was approached by authorities about his son.
He explained that Jackson County sheriffs showed up to his door to speak to him about a tip they received from the FBI that Colt was involved in a Discord conversation related to school shootings.
“I told him at one point in this conversation, if he even thought that this was related to Colt, anyway, shape or form,” Gray said he asked one of the deputies. “He asked me if I had guns in the house. I said I did, and that he could take them. He could take those guns out of my house. I will go get them.”
Gray said the deputies left the house that day and needed to gather more information about the incident. The next day, a deputy told him there were many people in the Discord chat and that they traced a suspicious IP address to California or Russia, Gray said.
“And so at that point he was like, ‘I don’t see an issue here,'” Gray said.
Gray said the deputy warned him not allow Colt to have free access to guns, and asked about how he’s storing them.
“I said, ‘They are in my master building closet where I kept the guns for most of my life,'” Gray said. “When Colt was little, I said they’re up on the top shelf of my closet, you know, not just lying around the house.”
The relationship between Gray and his son became more tense when he began requesting “pricier things,” he said.
“Sometimes, if he did not get his way about whatever it was, you know, we may have words back and forth,” Gray told the court.
Bullying at school continued to get more difficult for Colt in the seventh and eighth grades, Gray said, adding that kids would throw shampoo and milk bottles at his son on the school bus. He began to look into online schooling options for his son and thought he had secured an opportunity for him with his sister’s help. It turns out that Colt was never enrolled in online school, Gray said.
Gray said he would call his son while at work to make sure he was taking his classes.
“I remember him having a conversation with me about an algebra class, and when I got home from work, he was showing me a page of what he was working on,” Gray said. “So, I never, you know, verified and that’s my bad. I, you know, I didn’t fact-check what he was saying.”
Colt continued to fall behind in school, and Gray attempted to convince him to retake the eighth grade, he said.
“Listen, could I have done better? Yes, I could have done better. I could have done more. I see that now,” Gray said. “But the overall goal here was just get him in a comfort zone place.”
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