Father and son charged with US school shooting, detained without bail

WASHINGTON: A 14-year-old boy accused of shooting four people at a US high school and his father, who allegedly bought him the gun for Christmas, appeared in court on Friday to face murder charges.

Attorneys for Colt Gray, a freshman at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and his father, Colin Gray, 54, declined to request bail and they were ordered to remain in custody.

Judge Currie Mingledorff read the charges and rights of the thin, bleached-blond boy, who wore a green shirt and khaki pants and was shackled at the wrists and ankles.

Mingledorff told the boy that he was being charged with four counts of murder and that he was being sentenced to death. He later corrected himself, however, and said that the death penalty did not apply to him because he was a minor. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment without parole.

Gray is accused of shooting two 14-year-old classmates and two teachers at his high school on Wednesday. Nine other people – most of them children – were injured.

Gray's father appeared before the same judge shortly afterward, wearing a black-and-white striped prison uniform and rocking nervously at the defendant's table.

He is accused of manslaughter and premeditated murder.

Earlier this year, the parents of another teenage school shooter were found guilty of manslaughter, but Colin Gray is believed to be the first parent to be charged with murder for shooting at him by his child.

His lawyer also refused to ask for bail, and he will remain behind bars for now.

Relatives of some of the victims of Wednesday's shooting were in the audience during the two defendants' brief court appearances.

According to US media reports, Gray Sr. bought the weapon used in the shooting, an AR-15 assault rifle, last Christmas as a gift for his son.

Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said the father “knowingly” allowed his troubled son to own a gun.

“Hold parents accountable”

According to the FBI, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office questioned the then 13-year-old boy and his father in May 2023 after receiving several anonymous tips about online threats to carry out a school shooting.

“The father stated he had hunting weapons in the house, but the perpetrator did not have unsupervised access to them,” the FBI said in a statement, and his son “denied making the threats online.”

“At that time, there was no reasonable cause for an arrest or for further law enforcement action at the local, state or federal level,” it said.

In the United States, where there are more guns than people and no strict regulations even for the purchase of high-powered military rifles, school shootings occur with alarming frequency.

Parental responsibility in mass shootings has increasingly come into focus in recent months.

“How can you have an assault rifle, a gun, in a house that isn't locked away and know that your child knows where it is?” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “You have to hold parents accountable if they give their child access to these weapons.”

In April, the parents of a teenager who killed four people in a school shooting in Michigan were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison in an unprecedented and highly publicized case.

Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first parents of a school shooter to be convicted of manslaughter in the United States for the actions of their child.

Polls show that a majority of voters support tighter controls on firearm purchases. But the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby opposes additional restrictions, and lawmakers have repeatedly failed to take action.