The teenager charged in Wednesday deadly school shooting in Georgia was the subject of an investigation last year after he alleged made online posts threatening a school shooting.
Deputies from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office interviewed the 14-year-old boy, who has been identified as Colt Gray, and his father in May 2023 about the online threats, The Associated Press reported. The father told the investigators he had hunting guns in the house but that they were safely locked away and the boy did not have unsupervised access to them.
The boy denied making any threats. and investigators said there was no probably cause for an arrest or any further action.
Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder began after the school got a call in the morning warning of shootings at five school, beginning with the Bartow County high school, CrimeOnline reported.
When the shooting was done, two teachers and two 14-year-old students were dead, and at least nine other people were hospitalized. Math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo have been identified as the murder victims.
Authorities have said they will charge Gray as an adult.
Investigators say Gray, who had recently transferred to the school, left his second period algebra class Wednesday morning and later returned to the class, but students who moved to unlock the door for him instead backed away and left him in the hallway, classmate Lyela Sayarath said.
“I’m guessing they saw something, but for some reason they didn’t open the door,” Sayarath said.
By then, the student was armed with an AR-15-style rifle. Sayarath said she saw him turn through a window in the door and heard a barrage of gunshots. The students in the classroom hit the floor.
Within minutes, two school resource officers had confronted the shooter, and he surrendered.
Authorities say the state’s Division of Family and Children’s Services had prior contact with the killer and is looking into whether that had any bearing on the shooting. Law enforcement searched his home in Bethlehem after the massacre.
The shooting was the 30th mass killing in the United States so far this year.
