Apalachee Mass Shooting Suspect's Dad Granted Bond

WINDER, GA — A Barrow County judge has granted a $500,000 bond for the father of the accused Apalachee High School gunman, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

Superior Court Chief Judge Nicholas Primm on Tuesday granted the bond for Colin Gray, 54, the father of accused 14-year-old shooter Colt Gray, the news outlet reported.

Colt Gray is accused of shooting and killing two teachers and two students on Sept. 4, 2024, at the Barrow County high school. State authorities previously said eight students and a teacher were injured.

The teenage student, who was indicted in late October on 55 counts, was charged on suspicion of felony murder and malice murder in connection with the shooting that claimed the lives of students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.

Colin Gray has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the mass shooting at the school in Winder.

If convicted, he faces up to 180 years in prison, the Washington Post reported.

Primm did not consider Colin Gray to be a flight risk or a danger to the public, Fox 5 reported. Primm's decision was reportedly to the dismay of the victims' loved ones.

Colin Gray had given his son the assault-style weapon as a Christmas gift and was aware that the child's mental health had deteriorated in the weeks before the shooting, investigators testified at an earlier hearing. The father also was aware that his son was obsessed with school shooters and even had a shrine above his home computer for the gunman in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, school massacre, Florida, prosecutors say.

At Tuesday's hearing, several relatives of the dead and injured spoke, with some breaking down in tears as they described the loss of their loved one. They pleaded for the father to remain jailed without bond as he awaits trial.

“I feel that the sheer irresponsibility of Mr. Gray as a parent robbed my family of the chance to raise my son,” said Breanna Schermerhorn, whose 14-year-old son Mason was killed in the attack.

“What you, the families, are going through, what the community is going through is undeniable pain, and I understand that,” Judge Nick Primm said. “This case is an open sore, it’s a wound that continues to hurt the community.”

"Understand that the law does not permit me to be emotional, and I'm constrained by the law," Primm said to the victim's families during the bond hearing, per Fox 5. "I'm here to seek justice. Understand that at a bond hearing is not where justice is dispensed."

If $50,000 of the $500,000 bond is posted, Colin Gray would reportedly live with a family member in Cherokee County, about 70 miles from Winder.

The judge said he does not believe Gray could return to Winder, a small town northeast of Atlanta, while awaiting trial. “In the court of public opinion, he bears a scarlet letter,” he said.

The GBI previously said Colt Gray asked to go to the front office the day of the shooting, but he instead went to the restroom and hid from teachers.

He later retrieved the rifle and started shooting, the GBI said.

Authorities testified a notebook belonging to Colt Gray contained depictions of "stick figures with wounds," CNN reported. According to the news outlet, “Shoot the teacher first” was written next to the sketches.

A motive in the fatal shooting has not been revealed.

Colin Gray is the first adult known to be charged in a school shooting in Georgia. His indictment is the latest example of prosecutors holding parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings. Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first to be convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not securing a firearm at home and acting indifferently to signs of their son’s deteriorating mental health before he killed four students in 2021.

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Contains reporting from The Associated Press.