A Georgia father faces more than 200 years in prison after a jury found him criminally responsible for a mass shooting his son is accused of carrying out at his high school. The verdict is the latest to hold parents accountable for their children’s alleged crimes.
The jury handed Colin Gray a guilty verdict Tuesday on all 27 charges stemming from the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. Gray’s son Colt, now 16, is accused of committing the shooting with an AR-style rifle that was a Christmas gift from his father in 2023.
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Students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Anna-Christina Irmie died in the shooting. Nine others were wounded. The younger Gray is charged as an adult. No trial date has been set.
Colin Gray’s conviction came almost two years after juries in Michigan found Jennifer and James Crumbley guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with a 2021 mass shooting by their son, Ethan, that left four students dead at Oxford High School.
The ruling
Prosecutors charged the elder Gray, 55, with 20 counts of second-degree cruelty to children, five counts of reckless conduct, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder, according to Barrow County Superior Court records.
In closing arguments on Monday, a prosecutor said Gray allowed his son to access the firearm and ammunition used in the shooting despite receiving warnings that Colt might harm others, CNN reported.
“He was the one man who ensured that Colt Gray had the tools he needed to commit mass murder,” Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told the jury. “That man and his son are both responsible for the immense suffering that occurred on Sept. 4. The blood is on their hands.”
Two counts of second-degree cruelty to children were vacated due to victims not testifying at the trial, WXIA-TV of Atlanta reported. Colin Gray could face up to 10 years for each count of cruelty to children and involuntary manslaughter, and up to 30 years for each count of second-degree murder at sentencing.
Gray’s lawyer, Jimmy Berry, told jurors that the elder Gray didn’t think his son could “turn out to be a monster that killed these people.”
Colt Gray faces 55 felonies relating to the shooting, including four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, four counts of aggravated battery, 18 counts of first-degree cruelty to children and 25 counts of aggravated assault.
Parents facing criminal charges for children’s actions
Prosecutors across the nation are increasingly looking into what actions parents took — or failed to take — that resulted in killings their children are accused of committing.
In Wisconsin, the father of Natalie Rupnow will stand trial in connection to the fatal shooting she carried out at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison in December 2024. Natalie, who was 15, killed two people and wounded six before dying by suicide. Prosecutors say Jeffrey Rupnow bought guns for his daughter and gave her the code to a gun safe.
The case against the Crumbleys was unusual because they gave their son a firearm even though he exhibited “flagrant warning signs of violence,” Tim Carey, a policy adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said in March 2024. Carey said the case brought forth the issues of whether children should have access to firearms and how parents can mitigate risks.
“Part of the issue, and why we see fewer court hearings on these cases in particular, is that they are tragedies,” Carey said. “Often in these cases, the child takes their own life, which can be painful.”
