The Apalachee High School shooting suspect and his father were both indicted on new charges Thursday following a preliminary hearing where federal agents provided detailed testimony about the Sept. 4 shooting and events leading up to it.
A Barrow County grand jury returned separate indictments for the 14-year-old suspect and his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, CBS News reports. New charges against the teen, who will be tried as an adult, include four counts of malice murder, 22 counts of aggravated assault, and 18 counts of cruelty to children in the first degree. He has been indicted on 55 total counts.
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District Attorney Brad Smith said the indictment includes charges related to not only the victims who were killed and injured but those who were in the room the alleged shooter entered and those in the hallway.
“You had an entire county that was affected by this,” Smith told CBS News. “All of them are victims in certain ways.”
Killed in the shooting were Mason Schermerhorn, 14, Christian Angulo, 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53. Nine others were injured.
Apalachee Shooting Suspect’s Dad Bought Him Tactical Vest, Ammunition
The elder previously told investigators he purchased the gun used in the killings — an AR-15-style weapon — as a Christmas present for his son in Dec. 2023. Just seven months prior, Gray and his son were interviewed by local law enforcement after the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips that the teen allegedly made threats on the messaging app Discord about shooting up a middle school.
Gray was arrested two day after the shooting and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, the most serious charges ever filed against a parent of an alleged school shooter. He was indicted on 29 counts total, including two counts of involuntary manslaughter, three counts of reckless conduct, and second-degree cruelty to children.
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During testimony Wednesday, GBI agents said despite knowing his son’s struggles with mental health, he also purchased him a laser sight, tactical vest, and ammunition in the months leading up to the shooting.
Agents also testified that the teen suspect meticulously planned out the shooting in a notebook that included sketches of the school hallways and classrooms and an estimated death count. He also allegedly had a shrine to past-school shooters in his house and had asked his father to buy him a “shooter’s mask” to “finish his school shooter outfit.”
More details about the shooting were also provided, including how the teen was able to sneak the rifle into the school by concealing it in a posterboard.
Ultimately, a magistrate judge ruled there is enough probable cause for Gray to stand trial for the charges against him. Gray and his son are scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 21 to enter their respective pleas and schedule trial dates, according to Yahoo News. Smith said he wants to try the teen and his father separately.
