Father Held Responsible Along with 14yo Son For School Shooting
 |
| A memorial outside of Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., on Thursday.Amanda Kathleen Greene for The New York Times |
The New York Times
The father of the 14-year-old accused of killing four people at his Georgia high school was arrested and charged on Thursday with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the attack, the state’s Bureau of Investigation said.
The father, Colin Gray, 54, was also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, officials said at a news conference on Thursday night.
The charges against Mr. Gray are “directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” Chris Hosey, the bureau director, said at the news conference. He declined to provide details, including what evidence had given the authorities probable cause to charge Mr. Gray in the attack at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga.
Earlier on Thursday, Charlie Polhamus, the teenager's maternal grandfather, said he believed his grandson was responsible for what happened, but he also cast some of the blame on the tumult in the teenager’s home life with his father, who had split from Mr. Polhamus’s daughter. “My grandson did what he did because of the environment that he lived in,” Mr. Polhamus said.
When investigators looking into an online threat spoke to Mr. Gray last year, he said he had been teaching his son, then 13, about hunting and guns to divert his attention from video games. The teenager denied making the threat to “shoot up a middle school” and claimed his account on the social media platform Discord had been hacked, according to a transcript of the May 2023 interview.
Mr. Gray told the investigator that he had often discussed “all the school shootings, things that happen.” He also suggested that he had emphasized the dangers of using a firearm.
“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” Mr. Gray told the investigator at the time.
What matters to you in the South?After four years writing about Congress, Emily Cochrane is now covering the South for The Times. She is eager to learn about what makes life in this changing region distinct, and to talk to people whose lives have been directly affected by laws passed in Washington. Share your thoughts | More about Emily Cochrane
It was unclear on Thursday evening whether the father or son had legal representation. A man who answered the door at the Gray home on Wednesday night refused to speak with a reporter.
Records from an eviction two years ago show that Mr. Gray owned an array of weapons, including an AR-15-style rifle. Officials said that type of firearm was used in the shooting on Wednesday morning.
Georgia lawmakers have steadily loosened gun laws in recent years, including with a 2022 measure that allows most residents to carry a firearm without a permit. The state is not among those, for example, that penalizes failing to safely store a firearm.
It was unclear what the precedent was in Georgia for charging parents in connection with a serious crime committed by their children. Asked on Thursday, Mr. Hosey said he was unaware of the details.
Though four people, two teachers and two children, were killed in the attack, Mr. Gray has been charged with only two counts of second-degree murder. In Georgia, that charge applies when a person is accused of causing a death while committing cruelty to children in the second degree, which involves criminal negligence.
The charges in Georgia came months after a mother and father in Michigan were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with their teenage son’s deadly attack on a high school in 2021. Four students were killed and seven others were wounded in what became Michigan’s deadliest school shooting.
The parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley were the first in the country to be directly charged for the deaths caused by their child in a mass shooting, and the prosecutions were seen as part of a national effort to hold some parents responsible for enabling deadly violence by their children.
Comments