How Colt Gray’s Father Missed All the Warning Signs

Students who had crouched in terror filed down the stairs and gazed past a half-dozen cops to where the murder weapon lay on a hallway floor at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, pending processing by crime scene investigators.

Nobody could have been much surprised that the gun was an AR-15—the school shooter’s weapon of choice. Police say that 14-year-old Colt Gray used this one to kill two other 14-year-old students, along with two teachers.

Police also believe that this same black semi-automatic rifle with a scope was among several weapons that a crew from DSI eviction services removed from the Gray home in Jefferson, Georgia, on July 25, 2022. Court papers say the Grays had failed to pay rent.

The family was away at the time and, upon discovering the firearms and several bows and arrows, the clearing crew turned them over to the police rather than just leave them at the end of the driveway with the rest of their possessions.

“The firearms along with the hunting bows and ammo was placed in locker #001 and #007 for safekeeping,” notes a Jackson County Sheriff’s office incident report.

A subsequent notation reads: “Released to family.”

Another police report says the family split at the time of the eviction. The weapons went with Colt and his father to a rented house. Two younger children went with their mother Marquee to a relative’s home.

On May 21, 2023, Investigator Dan Miller and Deputy Justin Elliot visited Colt’s new home on a tip from the FBI that somebody with his IP address had spoken on the messaging platform Discord about conducting a mass shooting at a school the following day.

The police initially spoke just to the father, Colin, who was arrested Thursday for “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. Gray told investigators this week that he purchased the gun his son used Wednesday as a present in December 2023, CNN reported, citing law enforcement sources.

The interview between Colin and the local cops was recorded.

The father allowed that Colt had been having some problems at school, and that he had been bullied.

“He gets flustered and under pressure,” the father added. “He doesn't really think straight.”

The father said he had often been at his son’s middle school and wanted to ask the people there, “Can we just you know kind of put your arms around him, get him through seventh grade?”

Miller asked if there were any weapons in the house.

“There are,” the father replied. “I mean there’s nothing loaded but they are down… We do actually do a lot of shooting. We do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year.”

The father went on, “I’m trying to teach him about firearms and safety and how to do it all and get him interested in the outdoors. And get him away from those video games.”

The father showed the investigators a photo on his phone of what he hoped had replaced online gaming for his son.

“The picture on my phone, you see him with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer,” the father said. “It was just the greatest day ever.”

The father added, “He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do and how to use them and not use them.”

The father said he wanted the investigator to speak directly to Colt about the supposed school shooting threat.

“I don’t know anything about him saying s--t like that,” the father said. “I’m going be mad as hell he did and then all the guns will go away. And they won’t be accessible to him.”

The father asked the investigator to make clear to his son that there is nothing funny about school shootings.

“Like it’s no joke,” the father said.

“Well, we wouldn't be here if it was,” Miller replied.

“I’m telling you right now, we talk about it quite a bit,” the father said. “All the school shootings, things that happen.”

“Yeah, it’s scary,” Miller said.

“He’s getting picked on at school,” the father said. “That’s why I keep going up there.”

He added, “Because you just never, you never really know and I don’t want anything to happen to him.”

The father went to get Colt, who said he had stopped using Discord.

“Uh bruh, man, like a few months ago,” Colt said.

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“Have you heard anybody on Discord when you were using it say something like that?” Miller asked

“I don’t think so,” Colt replied. “I don’t think I ever…”

“This is some serious stuff,” Miller said.

“Yeah, I know,” Colt told him.

“Oh, he knows how serious it is,” the father said. “Trust me.”

Miller told Colt, “I just wanna be sure you understand that if something like that happens or you hear something like that, report it.”

“Yeah,” Colt replied. “Yes sir.”

“And you’re you’re you’re saying you didn’t say anything like that?” Miller asked. Again.

“The only thing I have is TikTok, but I just go on there and watch videos,” Colt told him.

“I gotta take you at your word and I hope you’re being honest with me.” Miller said.

“Oh yes sir,” Colt assured him.

“I’m not saying you’re lying but… it’s not unusual for people to lie to the police. OK?” Miller said.

“He’s familiar, and I am too,” the father said.

Colt said his school year was over. Miller asked what grade he was going into come fall. Colt said eighth.

“Almost high school, man,” Miller noted.

“Yeah,” Colt said.

“The last four years is what matters,” Miller said.

“I’m trying, you know, I’m just focusing,” Colt said.

“Get them good grades, man,” Miller said. “It’ll set you up for the rest of your life.”

“I keep trying to tell my son that,” the father said.

Miller departed. He recorded a phone call the father subsequently made from a construction site where he was working.

“He’s like, ‘I can't believe this is happening,’” the father said of Colt. “He’s like, ‘I’m a good boy, daddy. I would never do it.’”

The father again said Colt had been having a tough time at school.

“I don’t want him to fight anybody but they just keep like pinching him and touching him and, like, words are one thing, but you start touching him and that’s a whole different deal,” the father said. “And it’s just, it’s escalated to a point where his finals were last week and that was the last thing on his mind.”

The father said he had been trying to get Colt on the golf team, but other kids were saying. “‘Oh, look Colt’s gay. He’s dating that guy.’ Just ridiculed him day after day after day.”

The father then was talking again about having introduced his son to bow hunting.

“Then it was a pellet gun, then it was a .22 and gun safety, all of this because I worry about him and school,” the father said.

The father reassured Miller that his son was “in the mindset of you know if there’s anything he can do or say or that might give you information, that’s what he wants to do.”

Miller then asked what he allowed was going to sound like a weird question.

“Your son doesn’t know any Russian does he?” Miller asked.

“He does not know any Russian,” the father said.

Miller told him that there was a photo on the Discord account with Russian lettering on it.

“That translated to the name Lanza,” Miller said. “Remember Adam Lanza? the shooter up there in Sandy Hook?”

Lanza used an AR-15 to murder 20 youngsters and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

“Yep. Sure do,” the father said.

“But I don’t think your son’s being dishonest at all,” Miller said.

“I'm gonna talk to him about this some more,” the father said. “He wants to know what happened, and where all this came from.”

The case was closed for lack of evidence. Colt entered eighth grade that fall. Then it was on to Apalachee High School.

And on Wednesday, a black AR-15 with a scope lay on the hallway floor.

Colt had gone from killing his first deer to being charged with murdering two fellow teens, and two teachers.