Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray is expected to face additional charges following Wednesday's attack, Jackson County District Attorney Brad Smith said Friday.
Smith said the nine people who were injured in the shooting were never accounted for in the charges that Gray currently faces.
So far, Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder -- one for each person killed.
Smith also said that Colin Gray, the 14-year-old suspect's father, "may" face additional charges as well pending the outcome of an investigation.
"You don't have to be physically injured in this to be a victim. Everyone in this community is a victim, every child in that school was a victim," he added.
Alanna Wallace, identified by Fox5 Atlanta as the sister of Apalachee High School shooting victim Mason Schermerhorn, said he once told her that "he wanted to be like me when he got older."
"He had just started learning to play trumpet, and he did it because I play trumpet," Wallace told the station.
Wallace also said that Schermerhorn "loved everyone" and that "it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be different" to imagine life without him.
Math teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie also were killed at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, along with Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, students who were both 14, officials say.
Former assistant district attorney Phil Holloway told “America’s Newsroom” on Friday that the “the facts as alleged” against Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray and his father Colin appear to be “very damning.”
“Both of these individuals are potentially facing the rest of their natural lives in prison,” he said. “I think law enforcement is still having to complete their investigation, but the criminal negligence aspect is very fact-dependent and all we know right now is that he allegedly made this firearm available to his son, so we need to find out some additional details.”
Colt Gray is accused of opening fire on Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, killing four and injuring nine others.
“Needless to say, the facts as alleged against both of these guys appear to be very, very damning for both of them,” Holloway added.
{{#rendered}}The flagpole outside Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia has now become a makeshift memorial in the wake of Wednesday’s mass shooting.
"It still feels like a dream, but it's not. It hasn't finished processing," student Hogan Gooch told Fox5 Atlanta after being inside the school as the attack unfolded.
"I needed to come out and bring flowers for the people, and… it just helps to be here," he added.
The flags have been lowered to half-mast following Wednesday’s shooting, during which four people were killed and nine others were wounded.
Rob McGinnis, the father of a sophomore student at Apalachee High School, told Fox5 Atlanta that his phone was flooded with messages from his daughter Brennen as the shooting unfolded there Wednesday.
“Daddy, dad, there’s gunshots, I’m scared,” read some of the texts the student sent her father.
“I think the police got him, I can’t talk, I hear the police I think they got him,” the messages continued.
McGinnis told the station that he then raced to the school and ran on foot to find his daughter.
"The police officers were trying to direct parents one way, and I wasn’t having it,” he said. “She told me through a text that she was on the football field, so that’s where I went.”
Colin Gray, the 54-year-old father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, made his first court appearance Friday.
The father has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. Authorities said the charges are connected to the suspect's possession of a weapon.
"For the felony murder counts... the maximum penalty for each count is up to 30 years imprisonment," Judge Currie Mingledorff II said. "For felony involuntary manslaughter... the maximum penalty for for each of those offenses is ten years imprisonment."
"For the eight felony cruelty to children counts, the maximum penalty under the law for each of those eight counts is ten years imprisonment for a maximum total, possible penalty for the charges that you currently are facing, of 180 years imprisonment," the judge concluded.
Gray could be seen rocking back and forth in his chair after the judge spoke. The preliminary hearing in his case, like his son's, will be on Dec. 4.
{{#rendered}}Judge Currie Mingledorff II called Colt Gray back into the courtroom Friday to tell him that "I correctly told you, the maximum penalty for the crimes for which you are charged."
"That's correct, except for the fact that, you are under 18 years old. So I wanted to inform you and make it clear to you that the penalty for the crimes for which you are charged does not include death," he added. "It includes, life without the possibility of parole or life with the possibility of parole."
Gray's preliminary hearing in the case has been set for Dec. 4 at 8:30 a.m. ET
Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray appeared in Barrow County Superior Court on Friday for the first time following this week’s mass shooting.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says Gray has been “charged with 4 counts of felony murder in connection to the shooting.”
"I want to make you aware that the maximum penalty for felony murder. So for each count, the maximum penalty is that you could be punishable by death, by imprisonment for life without parole or by imprisonment for life, with the possibility of parole," Judge Currie Mingledorff II told Gray.
Mingledorff said at this point, there is no bond being requested for Gray.
An attorney representing Gray also told the judge "there was a development yesterday afternoon that makes it necessary for our office to have alternate counsel appointed, and arrangements have already been made in that regard.
"I've already explained that to Mr. Gray. Alternate counsel will be appointed by the end of the day today," she added.
Gray did not enter a plea during the appearance.
Colt Gray, the teen suspect accused of committing the mass shooting at Apalachee High School that killed four individuals and wounded nine others, will appear in person for his first court appearance, rather than appearing virtually.
Gray is set to appear before the court at 8:30 a.m. on Friday.
Colin Gray, the 54-year-old father of the suspect who has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, is also expected to appear in court Friday. Authorities said the charges are connected to the suspect's possession of a weapon.
Colin Gray is expected to appear at 9:30 a.m. ET Friday.
{{#rendered}}The charges against the father of the suspected shooter accused of killing four people at a Georgia high is an example of a new approach by authorities to curb similar incidents, a legal expert told Fox News Digital.
Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
On Thursday, authorities said the charges are connected to the possession of a weapon by Gray's son, Colt Gray, who allegedly killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School and wounded nine others.
“This was done by authorities in Michigan who successfully prosecuted the parents of a teen who killed four students using a firearm his parents purchased for him,” said David Gelman, a criminal defense attorney and former deputy district attorney.
Jennifer and James Crumbley were convicted in April of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced 10 years in prison after prosecutors said they kept an unsecured gun at home and showed indifference toward their son's mental health. Ethan Crumbley killed four students at a high school in 2021.
Colin Gray's case is different because he also faces murder charges, said Gelman.
“The charge of murder may be challenging to prove as this charge contemplates malice aforethought, as opposed to involuntary manslaughter which does not require a specific intention to cause death,” he said.
Colt Gray, 14-year-old accused of killing four people and injuring nine others during the shooting at Apalachee High School will make his first court appearance Friday.
The appearance is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. local time.
Gray, who is currently being held at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, will be appearing virtually in Barrow County Superior Court, a Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice spokesperson announced Thursday.
Officials previously have said the suspect will face murder charges.
Jackson County, Georgia, officers in 2023 spoke face-to-face with the boy who is now charged with felony murder in the deaths of four at Apalachee High School in Winder on Wednesday.
The sheriff's officers described their interactions in a detailed investigation report from May 21, 2023, when suspect Colt Gray was 13 years old, after being tipped off by the FBI about a threat on the messaging app Discord of a threat to shoot up a middle school. Discord is popular with some video gamers.
Gray said he had previously deleted a Discord account and denied that he would make such a threat, "even in a joking manner," according to the report.
Gray's father, Colin, told the officers that he had hunting rifles in the house but that his son "does not have unfettered access to them." The two guns were both "locked away," the father told them. Authorities have said the shooting was carried out with an AR-style rifle.
"I urged Colin to keep his firearms locked away, and advised him to keep Colt out of school until this matter could be resolved," investigator Daniel Miller Jr. wrote.
Jackson County investigators could not substantiate the Discord threat, which came from a user profile that spelled Lanza in Russian, according to the report. Adam Lanza perpetrated the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
The officer also found that the information sent to the FBI was communicated via various IP addresses across the world: Palmdale, California; Los Angeles; and Cockburn, Australia. He also reviewed the email address and phone number related to the case as well as the user profile linked to the threats.
Read the full article about the shooting suspect by Timothy H.J. Nerozzi.
{{#rendered}}A law enforcement expert discussed what Georgia agencies are lasered in on as they continue to investigate the tragic Apalachee High School shooting.
Matthew Fagiana, a retired police sergeant and law enforcement consultant, told Fox News Digital that Georgia's top law enforcement agencies are continuing to investigate Colt Gray's motivation while simultaneously working on ways to prevent future mass shootings in the community.
The suspected shooter , 14-year-old Gray, opened fire at the high school, killing 2 teachers and 2 students.
Fagiana said that law enforcement is focused on the 14-year-old's past and if he had any known interactions with the victims. The law enforcement expert also said that investigative units would likely meticulously comb through Gray's home as well as the high school.
"I can only assume that the crime scene at the school is quite large," he said. "Those types of scenes require a very meticulous examination and collection of evidence – things like logging locations of evidence, spent casings.
"Fagiana said that investigators are attempting to answer what prompted the suspected shooter to open fire.
"One important piece of the suspect being taken into custody will be the interviews he provides to investigators," he said. "Any time we have someone who commits a mass killing, one of the most important questions we are trying to answer is the 'why.'"
"And because many school shooters either kill themselves, or are killed by law enforcement to prevent further harm to others, we are often left without the ‘why’ and can only develop theories based on their history and any evidence they leave behind," he said.
Read the full article about the shooting suspect by Sarah Rumpf-Whitten.
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