A father from Georgia appeared in court on Monday, accused of providing his 14-year-old son with a rifle, which was later involved in a school shooting incident.

During the trial’s opening day, prosecutors contended that Colin Gray bore part of the blame for the mass shooting carried out by his son, Colt Gray, at Apalachee High School.

Authorities claim that despite warnings about Colt’s potential threats of mass violence, Colin Gray gifted him an AR-15 style rifle as a Christmas present.

The tragic event unfolded in 2024 when Colt Gray allegedly opened fire at the school, resulting in the deaths of two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14 years old.

Two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, aged 39, and Cristina Irimie, aged 53, also lost their lives in the attack, with nine other individuals sustaining injuries.

Colin Gray faces 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 20 counts of cruelty to children, and five counts of reckless conduct.

If convicted of all his charges, Colin could be sentenced to a maximum of 180 years in prison. 

Colt will be tried as an adult and is facing 55 charges, including four counts of felony murder. His trial date has not yet been scheduled. 

The trial of Colin Gray, a Georgia father accused of gifting his son a rifle before a school shooting in 2024, began on Monday. Colin is pictured entering a courtroom at an earlier date

Colin is facing a total of 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 20 counts of cruelty to children and five counts of reckless conduct. His mugshot is pictured

Colin’s son, Colt Gray, is accused of murdering two teachers and two students, as well as wounding 9 others. He is pictured at a courthouse in December

Colt’s alleged victims, Mason Schermerhorn, 14, Christian Angulo, 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, are pictured clockwise from top left

In court, prosecutor Brad Smith said: ‘This is not a case about holding parents accountable for what their children do, that’s not what this case is about.

‘This case is about this defendant and his actions. His actions in allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that that child was going to harm others.’

More than a year before the shooting, police had interviewed Colt and Colin about a threat to carry out a school shooting that had been made on a Discord account created with an email associated with the teenager. 

The father told investigators that his son had access to firearms in the home, as he was teaching Colt about gun safety and how to hunt, but his access to them was not ‘unfettered.’ 

He said that if his son did make the threat, he would be ‘mad as hell’ and that ‘all the guns will go away.’

Ultimately, investigators closed the case after being unable to substantiate that Colt was connected to the Discord account, and they did not find grounds to seek the needed court order to confiscate the family’s guns, according to police reports. 

During Christmas after the Grays’ encounter with law enforcement, Colin gifted his son an AR-15 style rifle and allowed him to keep it in his room.  

Smith, the prosecutor, said that despite Colt’s disturbing behavior, which made his parents believe he needed to be institutionalized, they never got the teenager the help he needed and allowed him to keep the rifle. 

If convicted of all his charges, Colin could be sentenced to a maximum of 180 years in prison. He is pictured in court on Monday

Colt will be tried as an adult and is facing 55 charges, including four counts of felony murder. His mugshot, when he had different colored hair, is pictured

Prosecutor Brad Smith argued that Colin must be held accountable for giving his son access to a firearm despite warning signs. The prosecutor is pictured in court on Monday

Colin’s defense attorney, Brian Hobbs, argued that his client did seek mental health intervention through his son’s school and was serious about taking away his son’s gun privileges if the online threats truly came from him. 

‘The evidence will show a teenager who is struggling mentally. A teenager who is deceptive,’ Hobbs said in court. 

‘A teenager who hid his true intentions from everyone – from his family, from his counselor, from his siblings, from DFCS [Georgia Division of Family & Children Services], from law enforcement and most especially from his father.’

During the father’s trial on Monday, prosecutors laid out the events on the day of the school shooting, as well as disturbing warning signs displayed by Colt in the months leading up to it. 

Prosecutors said that about two and a half years ago on September 4, Colt went to school with his AR-15 style rifle concealed by a poster board in his backpack.

His family frequently moved, and by seventh grade, the teen had been enrolled in seven different schools in just four years. He had been attending Appalachee High School for just five days by the time of the shooting. 

Suzanne Harris, a computer science teacher at the high school, testified that she had noticed the concealed weapon sticking out of Colt’s backpack. 

She said that she assumed it was a school project but thought it was odd as he had only been attending for a few days, so she asked him about it. 

Prosecutors said that Colin concealed an AR-15 style rifle in his backpack when he went to school on the day of the shooting. Prosecutor Smith is pictured pointing to a photo of the rifle in court on Monday

More than a year before the shooting, Colin told police investigating a school shooting threat that his son had access to firearms because he was teaching him about gun safety and how to hunt. A young Colt is pictured holding a rifle during a deer hunt on his mother’s Instagram

Colin’s defense attorney, Brian Hobbs, argued that his client tried to help Colt, but he was out of his depth. Hobbs is pictured in court on Monday

‘I asked him what his project was about, and he didn’t really have much to say about the project, but he did tell me that he would show it to me later if I wanted to see it,’ the teacher said in court. 

Harris also said that she noticed Colt was struggling to carry the backpack and that he seemed nervous when she asked if he needed help. 

Earlier during the class, the teenager had asked Harris if the school had active shooter drills, which she found suspicious and flagged to the school counselor, she added. 

The teacher recounted feeling chills run down her spine when she realized that Colt may have had a weapon, and she warned higher-ups of her concerns and told her students not to leave the classroom unless it was an emergency. 

‘I just felt in every fiber of my being that something was wrong,’ Harris said.

During Colt’s second period, he asked to go to the counselor’s office, but instead went to a bathroom and locked himself in a stall for 26 minutes, prosecutors said.

Around the same time, the teen’s mother received texts from her son that alarmed her, so she called the school. 

Over the course of an eight and a half minute conversation with the school counselor, the mother only mentioned that Colt had access to firearms at the very end of the call.

Colt’s official trial date has not yet been scheduled. He is pictured in court for a hearing on December 9

Colin’s defense attorney said that Colt was deceptive and effectively hid his intentions from his father. Colin and Colt are pictured when the alleged school shooter was younger

A vice principal and school resource officers went to Colt’s second period class to retrieve him, but they confused him for another student with an extremely similar name. They searched his bag before determining they had the wrong student. 

In the meantime, Colt emerged from the bathroom dressed in yellow work clothes and armed with the rifle, according to prosecutors.

He approached his classroom, but the door was locked. A student went to open it but saw the rifle through a window.  

Katherine Greer, the teacher in the classroom, testified that she had also seen the gun and immediately pressed a button on her lanyard that sent the school into lockdown and summoned law enforcement. 

She recounted telling her students to get into a corner of the room and turning the lights off. She then heard shots ring out from the hallway. 

Colt had approached another classroom where the door had been left open and opened fire, prosecutors said.  

He was soon confronted by police officers and surrendered. 

Prosecutors said that after Colt was arrested, investigators found a ‘shrine’ on his bedroom wall dedicated to the shooter who killed 17 people in a 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. 

Prosecutors said that after Colt was arrested, investigators found a ‘shrine’ on his bedroom wall dedicated to the shooter Parkland, Florida, school shooter who killed 17 people. The Grays’ home is pictured

Prosecutors said that on the day of the shooting, Colin told police ‘I knew it’ before they could tell him why they were there when they arrived at his home. The father is pictured in court in December

Colin’s defense attorney argued that his client was not willfully ignorant of his son’s troubles and tried to help him, but he was out of his depth. 

Prosecutors said that on the day of the shooting, Colin knew something was wrong. 

They said that he had texted his daughter asking if she had heard from Colt, but she responded that she had not, and wrote back: ‘I think we’re thinking the same thing.’

Colin hurried home to look for the rifle in his son’s room, but it was not there. 

When police officers arrived at the home, before they could explain why they were there, the father told them: ‘I knew it.’