A Georgia jury has found Colin Gray, 55, guilty of murder, child cruelty and multiple other charges linked to a deadly school shooting carried out by his teenage son in 2024.
The attack took place at Apalachee High School, where four people were killed: two 14-year-old students, Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie.
Prosecutors argued that Gray could have prevented the attack by his son, Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time and is now awaiting trial. They said the father was aware of his son’s deteriorating mental health and violent fixation, yet still bought him an AR-style rifle for Christmas the year before the shooting.
The court heard that the teenager had previously been questioned by police over online threats to commit a school shooting and had kept a notebook detailing plans to kill students and teachers. Prosecutors said that instead of removing access to weapons, Gray enabled the violence.
“This was the one person who could have stopped it,” Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told jurors, describing the boy as “a bomb just waiting to go off”.
Gray’s defence argued that responsibility lay solely with his son, stressing that the teenager acted independently and in secret.
Before the attack, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had alerted local authorities after receiving anonymous tips about online threats. Deputies interviewed both father and son, but no arrest was made at the time due to a lack of probable cause.
According to CBS News, this is only the third case in US history where a parent has been criminally convicted for a mass shooting committed by their child. The verdict follows the high-profile conviction of the parents of a Michigan school shooter in 2024.
