Trial Begins for Father of Georgia Apalachee High School Shooting Suspect

Jury selection is set to start Monday in Gainesville, Georgia, for the trial of Colin Gray, whose son Colt is accused of killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine others in the Sept. 4, 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder. Gray faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and multiple counts of second-degree cruelty to children, with prosecutors alleging he gave his son the semiautomatic rifle and a larger magazine despite clear warnings about the boy’s mental health and obsession with school shooters. Investigators say Gray knew his son kept a shrine to Parkland gunman Nikolas Cruz and had recently sought counseling, writing that the teen was volatile and he “didn’t know what to do,” yet still let him retain access to the weapon used in the attack. The case, one of only a handful nationwide targeting parents after a child’s school shooting, will test Georgia’s unusual second-degree murder statute, which ties a child’s death to underlying cruelty-to-children offenses, and is being closely watched by legal experts and gun-safety advocates as a potential precedent for parental liability in future cases. Because of intense local publicity and community trauma, the judge ordered jurors to be drawn from nearby Hall County, though the trial itself will be held in Barrow County, where Apalachee High School is located.