Georgia school shooting: New details released ahead of reopening

Bullet found days after shooting in hallway, report states
Apalachee High School students returned to the Barrow County campus for the first time Monday, Sept. 23, 2024 after police say a 14-year-old student shot and killed four people at the school on Sept. 4. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith called the return “a huge step for us healing” in a briefing with reporters ahead of an open house for students. (John Spink/AJC)

Credit: John Spink

Credit: John Spink

Apalachee High School students returned to the Barrow County campus for the first time Monday, Sept. 23, 2024 after police say a 14-year-old student shot and killed four people at the school on Sept. 4. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith called the return “a huge step for us healing” in a briefing with reporters ahead of an open house for students. (John Spink/AJC)

Weeks after the shooting at Apalachee High School, the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office has released an incident report that provides new details about the deadliest school shooting in state history.

The school reopens Tuesday.

Among new details in the report, which includes information from four officers:

  • Two officers were in the school’s atrium when they heard gunshots. “When we heard the gunshots, we headed toward them,” an officer wrote in the report.
  • Student Colt Gray, 14, was arrested minutes after the shooting; a responding officer drove him from the school to the Barrow County Detention Center, where he was turned over to jail staff. Another deputy took the suspect’s clothes into evidence and turned them over the GBI. Colt Gray is being held without bond at the Gainesville Youth Detention Center. He has been charged with four counts of murder and officials have said more charges are pending.
  • A day after the shooting, investigators met with the parents of a 14-year-old student who had been in one of the classrooms where two victims were shot. The student’s shirt had victims’ blood on it and the teen wanted to give it law enforcement as evidence.
  • The incident report includes previously reported information, including victims’ names.

In court filings, the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney office has asked Gray, including Colt’s father, Colin Gray, and their attorneys to have no contact with a number of the victims. Colin Gray was arrested the day after the shooting and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.