Could the worst have been avoided? Hours before the attack, the mother of the teenager who opened fire and killed four people Wednesday, September 4 in his high school in Georgia had tried to call the school to warn of imminent danger. The woman’s sister tells the Washington Post that the attacker’s mother tried to warn the school by phone of “an extreme emergency” involving her 14-year-old son. In vain.
Annie Brown told the American newspaper that her sister Marceee Gray – Colt Gray’s mother – sent her text messages that day urging her to “immediately find” her son to check on him, after speaking with a school counselor. The woman had also tried to call the school, about 30 minutes before the gunfire erupted.
The information was confirmed by the person concerned to the Associated Press, and supported by screenshots of the exchange of text messages and calls between members of this family. According to the messages exchanged, the family of the assailant and the school had already been in contact about his mental health a week before. Annie Brown confided to a relative that Colt Gray had “suicidal and homicidal thoughts” at that time.
Threats made a year earlier
The young man killed four people by firing an assault rifle at Apalachee High School on Wednesday morning, September 4: the victims were two mathematics teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.
The FBI said Colt Gray was previously interviewed “in May 2023” by law enforcement about “multiple anonymous tips regarding threats to commit a school shooting.” Gray, who was 13 at the time, denied making the threats and “there was insufficient cause to make an arrest,” a statement released Wednesday said.
The teen’s father, Colin Gray, is charged with murder for providing his son with an AR-15 rifle. Interviewed a year before the attack, the teen’s father said his son was suffering because of his parents’ separation and was also being bullied by classmates.
The shooter was arrested at the scene by law enforcement and “will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.” While he has already spoken to investigators, “we are not aware of any targets” that the teenager may have targeted “at this time.” Eight students and a teacher were also injured and transported to various hospitals in the Atlanta area.
The United States is the only country in the world to be relentlessly mourned by school shootings, a scourge fueled by the spread of individual weapons. In May 2022, 19 children and two teachers were victims of a horrific massacre in their school in Uvalde, Texas, committed by an 18-year-old man using a legally purchased assault rifle.
- BFMTV.com
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