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WINDER, Ga. (AP) — The teen charged with opening occurrence astatine a Georgia precocious school denied threatening to transportation retired a schoolhouse shooting erstwhile authorities interviewed him past twelvemonth astir a menacing station connected societal media, according to a sheriff’s study obtained Thursday. Meanwhile his begetter was arrested connected a assortment of counts, including second-degree murder.
Colin Gray, 54, the begetter of Colt Gray, was charged with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter, 2 counts of second-degree execution and 8 counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said successful a societal media post. No different details were instantly provided. A quality league was planned aboriginal Thursday.
Authorities person charged 14-year-old Colt Gray arsenic an big with execution successful the shootings Wednesday astatine Apalachee High School extracurricular Atlanta. Arrest warrants obtained by the AP impeach him of utilizing a semiautomatic assault-style firearm successful the attack, which killed 2 students and 2 teachers and wounded 9 different people.
Conflicting grounds connected the post's root near investigators incapable to apprehension anyone, the study said. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the study from May 2023 and recovered thing that would person justified bringing charges astatine the time.
“We did not driblet the shot astatine each connected this,” Mangum told The Associated Press successful an interview. “We did each we could bash with what we had astatine the time.”
When a sheriff's researcher from neighboring Jackson County interviewed Gray past year, his begetter said the lad had struggled with his parents’ separation and often got picked connected astatine school. The teen often fired guns and hunted with his father, who photographed him with a deer's humor connected his cheeks.
“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they tin do, and however to usage them and not usage them,” the father, Colin Gray, said according to a transcript obtained from the sheriff's office.
The teen was interviewed aft the sheriff received a extremity from the FBI that Gray, past 13, “had perchance threatened to sprout up a mediate schoolhouse tomorrow.” The menace was made connected Discord, a societal media level fashionable with video gamers, according to the sheriff's bureau incidental report.
The FBI's extremity pointed to a Discord relationship associated with an email code linked to Colt Gray, the study said. But the lad said “he would ne'er accidental specified a thing, adjacent successful a joking manner,” according to the investigator's report.
The interrogation transcript quotes the teen arsenic saying: “I committedness I would ne'er accidental thing wherever ...” with the remainder of that denial listed arsenic inaudible.
The researcher wrote that nary arrests were made due to the fact that of “inconsistent information” connected the Discord account, which had illustration accusation successful Russian and a integer grounds way indicating it had been accessed successful antithetic Georgia cities arsenic good arsenic Buffalo, New York.
The onslaught was the latest among dozens of schoolhouse shootings crossed the U.S. successful caller years, including particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The schoolroom killings person acceptable disconnected fervent debates astir weapon power and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are increasing up accustomed to active-shooter drills. But determination has been small alteration to nationalist weapon laws.
Classes were canceled Thursday astatine the Georgia precocious school, though immoderate radical came to permission flowers astir the flagpole and kneel successful the writer with heads bowed.
When the fishy slipped retired of mathematics people Wednesday, Lyela Sayarath figured her quiescent classmate who precocious transferred was skipping schoolhouse again. But helium returned aboriginal and wanted backmost into the room. Some students went to unfastened the locked doorway but alternatively backed away.
“I’m guessing they saw something, but for immoderate reason, they didn’t unfastened the door,” Sayarath said.
The teen past opened occurrence successful the hallway, authorities said.
Sayarath said she heard a barrage of 10 to 15 gunshots. The students fell to the level and crawled successful hunt of a harmless country to hide.
Two schoolhouse assets officers confronted the shooter wrong minutes aft the gunshots were reported, Hosey said. The teen instantly surrendered.
Gray was being held Thursday astatine a determination younker detention facility. His archetypal tribunal quality was scheduled for Friday morning.
He has been charged successful the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, some 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, according to Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey.
At slightest 9 different radical — 8 students and 1 teacher astatine the schoolhouse successful Winder — were wounded and taken to hospitals. All were expected to survive, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.
Authorities person not offered immoderate motive oregon explained however the fishy obtained the weapon and got it into the schoolhouse of astir 1,900 students successful a rapidly processing country connected the borderline of metro Atlanta’s ever-expanding sprawl.
It was the 30th mass killing in the U.S. truthful acold this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today successful concern with Northeastern University. At slightest 127 radical person died successful those killings, which are defined arsenic events successful which 4 oregon much radical dice wrong a 24-hour period, not including the slayer — the aforesaid explanation utilized by the FBI.
Prior cases person emerged successful which idiosyncratic who was erstwhile connected the FBI's radar but was not arrested went connected to perpetrate violence.
A period earlier Nikolas Cruz killed 17 radical astatine the Parkland, Florida, precocious schoolhouse successful 2018, the bureau received a informing that helium had been talking astir committing a wide shooting. The FBI besides investigated a extremity astir the idiosyncratic aboriginal convicted successful a deadly 2022 shooting astatine a cheery nightclub successful Colorado.
The signifier underscores the challenges instrumentality enforcement faces successful trying to find erstwhile concerning behaviour crosses into a crime. Investigators sift done tens of thousands of tips each twelvemonth to effort to find which could output a viable threat. Cases specified arsenic the Georgia schoolhouse shooting punctual caller questions astir whether much intensive investigative enactment mightiness person averted the violence.
The sheriff's study says researcher Daniel Miller spoke to the lad and his begetter May 21, 2023. The begetter said his lad had entree to guns successful the house.
“I mean they aren't loaded, but they are down,” Gray's begetter said, according to the interrogation transcript.
He described a photograph connected his cellphone from a caller hunting travel with his son: "You spot him with humor connected his cheeks from shooting his archetypal deer.” Gray's begetter called it “the top time ever.”
The teen told Miller helium stopped utilizing Discord a fewer months earlier aft his relationship got hacked.
“I gotta instrumentality you astatine your connection and I anticipation you’re being honorable with me,” Miller replied.
A telephone fig associated with the relationship was linked to a antithetic idiosyncratic successful different Georgia city, the study said. The account's illustration name, written successful Russian, translated to Lanza. The researcher noted that Adam Lanza was the perpetrator of the 2012 wide shooting that killed 26 radical astatine Sandy Hook Elementary School successful Newtown, Connecticut.
The sheriff’s bureau alerted section schools for continued monitoring of the teen. But the researcher concluded that helium "could not substantiate the extremity I received from the FBI to instrumentality further action.”
