The mother of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect told a family member that she called the school to warn of an “extreme emergency” that morning, according to a report.
Marcee Gray, the mother of 14-year-old shooting suspect Colt Gray, texted her sister after the Sept. 4 shooting unfolded in Georgia.
“I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school,” Marcee Gray wrote to Annie Brown, the teen suspect’s aunt, according to a screenshot viewed by the Washington Post. “I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”
Brown told the Post that her sister had learned concerning information about her son and called the school fearing an “impending disaster.” The aunt said she did not know specifically what the suspect’s mother had learned.
The aunt confirmed the reporting to the Associated Press on Saturday in text messages but declined to provide further comment.
Colt Gray sits in the Barrow County courthouse during his first appearance for the Apalachee High School shooting on Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Georgia. (Brynn Anderson-Pool/Getty Images)
The Post reported that a call log from the family’s shared phone plan indicated a 10-minute call from Marcee Gray to the school that began at 9:50 a.m.
That’s about half an hour before witnesses claimed the teen opened fire, according to the Post.
Two students and two teachers died in the shooting. They were identified as 14-year-olds Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall and 53-year-old Cristina Irimie.
Another nine people – eight students and one teacher, were injured, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Brown told the Post that a counselor relayed to her sister on the call that the teen had been talking about a school shooting that morning. Around the same time as the mother rang the school, an administrator went to Colt Gray’s math classroom, another student in the class, Lyela Sayarath, told the Post. But Sayarath said there was confusion about Colt Gray and another student with a similar name.
Neither Gray nor the student with the similar name were in the classroom, and the administrator left with a backpack belonging to the similarly named student just minutes before the shooting started, Sayarath said.
In a prior interview, Brown, who lives in central Florida, told the Post that her nephew “was begging for help from everybody around him” for months and that “the adults around him failed him.”
APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING SUSPECT MAKES FIRST COURT APPEARANCE
Marcee Anne Gray in a 2023 booking photo from the Ben Hill County Sheriff Office. Colt Gray, 14, in a booking photo. (Handout)
Screenshots obtained by the Post also showed that Brown had sent a text saying that her mother, the suspect’s grandmother, had met with a school counselor seeking help.
A week before the shooting, the grandmother sent a text saying Colt Gray “starts with the therapist tomorrow.”
Marcee Gray had pleaded guilty to a family violence charge in December and was ordered not to contact her husband, Colin Gray, the Post reported, citing Barrow County Superior Court records.
Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
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Colin Gray, the alleged shooter’s father, was arrested on Thursday on two counts of second degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children for allegedly knowingly allowing his son Colt to have a weapon. The teen is being charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder.
Colin Gray told investigators in May 2023 that his son had struggled with his parents’ separation and had been bullied at school.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
