Colin Gray is the first parent of a mass school shooting suspect to be arrested and charged in Georgia in connection with the crime, prosecutors believe.
The 54-year-old appeared in court Friday charged with multiple counts of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty, accused of knowingly allowing his 14-year-old son, Colt Gray, to possess a gun. The teenager is the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School that left two students and two teachers dead. Nine others were injured.
Colin Gray’s prosecution is believed to be the first of its kind in Georgia and only the second nationally, after the parents of a Michigan school shooter were convicted of involuntary manslaughter. They were sentenced in April to at least 10 years in prison. In both cases, the parents were accused of ignoring warning signs that their children could be capable of violence and allowing the children access to guns.
“My understanding is this is the second time in the United States and the first time in Georgia,” District Attorney Brad Smith said about charging the father and son in connection with the school shooting.
Holding parents accountable
The push to hold parents responsible for their children’s actions appears to be a new front in the battle against school shootings, and mirrors what prosecutors have done in other criminal contexts. Georgia parents have been accused in other cases of supplying alcohol to children whose intoxication led to deaths, and of leaving weapons lying around for children to handle with dire consequences.
A parent’s actions in providing some kind of dangerous instrument to a child is a key part of such a case, as is the child’s age, former Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said. If a parent is accused of allowing a 14-year-old to access an AR-style gun, as in Colin Gray’s case, “there’s a better chance a jury will say ‘You should have known something like this was going to happen,’” Porter said.
“You have to show that (the parent) acted with some kind of criminal intent,” Porter said. “This wasn’t a .22 (caliber gun) that (Colt Gray) was going to learn to hunt with. This was an AR. He had a serious weapon of destruction.”
GBI Director Chris Hosey said Colin Gray’s charges stem from him “knowingly allowing” his son to possess a gun. Hosey wouldn’t immediately provide further details, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation.
Colt Gray had been investigated in May 2023 by local and federal law enforcement for allegedly threatening a shooting, the FBI Atlanta office said. That strengthens the case against his father, said former Cobb County prosecutor Chuck Boring.
“One of the main things in these types of cases is was it reasonably foreseeable that something like this could happen,” Boring said. “In a situation like this, everyone wants to find somebody or something to blame. There are occasions where parents really have gone above and beyond, or below, in upholding their duties to the children and the public.”
Nick Suplina, of the gun control advocacy organization Everytown for Gun Safety, said Colin Gray’s alleged involvement in his son’s gun possession is “a complete and utter dereliction of responsibility, both as a gun owner and a community member.” Suplina said the convictions of Jennifer and James Crumbley in Michigan shows that parents can and should be held responsible when they disregard public safety.
The Crumbleys were charged after their 15-year-old son, Ethan, opened fire in a suburban Detroit high school, killing four students. The case was watched closely to see if prosecutors could succeed in holding parents criminally liable in school shootings.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
“That verdict should have sent a clear message to people like Mr. Gray, but unfortunately for the victims and their families, he did not heed that message to prevent a tragedy,” Suplina said.
Under Georgia law, second-degree murder stems from criminal negligence that results in a child’s death, Boring said.
Chris Timmons, who served as a prosecutor in DeKalb and Cobb counties for more than 17 years, said involuntary manslaughter charges arise when a misdemeanor causes someone’s death. In Colin Gray’s case, it appears the underlying misdemeanor is providing a child with unsupervised access to a firearm, Timmons said.
“I think the lesson here for parents is that you need to practice safe gun ownership and take school shooting threats seriously,” he said.
Political pressure
Porter said he expects the shooting will prompt state lawmakers to introduce some kind of “parental responsibility” bill in the next legislative session. He said such a measure could be tailored to gun access or more broadly encompass other scenarios like “kids who get in street races and kill people.”
Previous efforts to tighten Georgia’s gun laws have been rejected by its Republican-led state Legislature. Instead, in recent years, lawmakers have moved to loosen them.
Timothy Lytton, a professor at the Georgia State University College of Law, said Colin Gray could also face civil negligence claims from the shooting victims and their families. He said lawsuits stemming from school shootings can target the parents of suspects, particularly if other common targets of blame, such as the relevant school and law enforcement authorities, were found to have acted responsibly.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
In the wake of school shootings, there is enormous political pressure for legal action, Lytton said.
“I think Georgia politics is such that there’s an extreme urgency to move all attention away from the weapon and the manufacturer and why it is that there are so many of these firearms in private circulation, and toward some other point of blame,” he said. “And that’s either going to be the mental illness of the child, or in this case, criminal culpability of the parents.”
Colin Gray’s prosecution comes in Barrow County, which has repeatedly thrown its support behind Republicans who are outspoken supporters of gun rights. Gov. Brian Kemp and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins each won 74% of the county vote in 2022. That same year, Kemp signed into law a bill that makes it legal to carry a concealed handgun in public without a license. Collins has also promoted his stalwart support for gun rights, posting several videos on social media where he fires a rifle and blows up his target.
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