A Georgia Teenager Killed 4 People at His High School. Why Is His Father Charged With Murder?
The case is another example of stretching criminal laws to hold parents accountable for their children's violence.
On Wednesday, a 14-year-old boy shot and killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. On Thursday night, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that Colin Gray, the boy's father, had been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and several other felonies.
Although the details of Colin Gray's conduct are not yet completely clear, the gist of the case is that he negligently gave his son Colt, a freshman at the high school, access to the rifle he used in the shooting. Since Georgia does not have a law that explicitly treats such negligence as a crime, prosecutors are stretching other laws to cover Colin Gray's alleged failures as a parent.
Earlier this year, Michigan prosecutors used a similar strategy to convict the parents of the teenager who killed four students at Oxford High School in November 2021. Last February, a jury convicted Jennifer Crumbley on four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Her husband, James Crumbley, who was tried separately, was convicted of the same charges in March. The following month, they received sentences of 10 to 15 years in prison.
At the time of the Oxford High School shooting, Michigan did not have a child access prevention (CAP) law, which makes it a crime to negligently allow minors unsupervised access to firearms. Since Michigan legislators "refused to criminalize the conduct in which the Crumbley parents engaged," former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy argued after they were charged, prosecutors were "attempting in the heat of the moment to criminalize the conduct themselves." The extent of the Crumbleys' culpability in their son's crimes was unclear, and the law under which they were charged did not obviously apply to their conduct. The Georgia case raises similar issues.
Even if Colin Gray shares some of the moral responsibility for his son's actions, holding him criminally liable requires showing that his conduct fits the elements of a specific offense. At this point, that seems doubtful.
Although Georgia does not have a full-fledged CAP law, it does impose criminal penalties on adults who provide firearms to minors in certain circumstances. But the law applies only to handguns. Under that statute, "any person" who "intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly…sell[s] or furnish[es] a pistol or revolver" to someone younger than 18 is guilty of a felony punishable by three to five years in prison. That provision does not apply to a parent or guardian who lets a minor possess a handgun for lawful purposes such as hunting, shooting competitions, and firearms training unless the parent or guardian "is aware of a substantial risk" that the minor "will use a pistol or revolver to commit a felony offense" and does not "make reasonable efforts to prevent commission of the offense."
If Colt Gray had used a handgun in the attack on Apalachee High School, that law might have covered his father's conduct, depending on exactly what he did or failed to do. But since the law does not apply to rifles, this charge was not an option. Prosecutors therefore are relying on statutes that are less obviously relevant.
The second-degree murder charges are based on a statute that applies to someone who "causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice" while committing "cruelty to children in the second degree." The latter crime is defined as causing someone younger than 18 to suffer "cruel or excessive physical or mental pain" with "criminal negligence," which in turn is defined as "an act or failure to act which demonstrates a willful, wanton, or reckless disregard for the safety of others who might reasonably be expected to be injured thereby."
As with the involuntary manslaughter charges against Jennifer and James Crumbley, which required proving that they "willfully disregard[ed] the results to others that might follow from an act or failure to act," showing that Colin Gray was careless will not be enough to convict him of second-degree murder. Prosecutors will have to prove that he reasonably should have known his son was apt to commit mass murder. They also will have to prove that Colin Gray's conduct demonstrated "a willful, wanton, or reckless disregard for the safety of others."
Colin Gray also faces eight counts of cruelty to children in the second degree, the same crime that underlies the murder charges. That is a felony punishable by one to 10 years in prison.
Finally, Colin Gray is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Under Georgia law, a person is guilty of that offense when he "causes the death of another human being without any intention to do so by the commission of an unlawful act other than a felony" or "by the commission of a lawful act in an unlawful manner likely to cause death or great bodily harm." In the first case, that offense is a felony punishable by one to 10 years in prison. In the latter case, it is a misdemeanor.
Can prosecutors prove the criminal negligence that is required to convict Colin Gray of second-degree murder or cruelty to children? In the Michigan cases, it seemed clear that the Crumbleys did not understand exactly how troubled their son was and did not recognize that he was prone to violence, let alone mass murder. But the jury evidently concluded that they would have known those things if they were better, more attentive parents. In essence, the Crumbleys were convicted and sent to prison because they did not anticipate what their son would do.
In Colin Gray's case, there is some evidence to support the allegation that he likewise was insufficiently concerned about his son's state of mind. In May 2023, The New York Times reports, the FBI received anonymous tips that a participant in a Discord chat group had threatened to "shoot up a middle school." The alarming comment was made under a username in Russian letters that translated as "Lanza," an apparent reference to the perpetrator of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office traced the email address associated with the Discord account to Colt Gray, then 13.
The boy and his father both told investigators they did not speak Russian, and the boy denied that he was the source of the threat. According to a report on the investigation, the boy said he had a Discord account at one point but had deleted it because it had been repeatedly hacked and he was "afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes." He insisted "he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner."
Colin Gray "told an investigator that he and his wife were divorced and had been evicted from their home," the Times reports. "His wife took their younger two children, he said, and he and his son had moved into a new home." Colin Gray said his son had "some problems at West Jackson Middle School and now that he was going to Jefferson Middle School it was a lot better."
Contrary to that assessment, Colt Gray's aunt told The Washington Post that the boy had been experiencing serious psychological difficulties "for months" before the shooting. He "was begging for help from everybody around him," she said. "The adults around him failed him."
The Times says Colin Gray "also told investigators that he had hunting rifles in the house." He said his son was "allowed to use them when supervised" but did not "have unfettered access to them." He added that Colt Gray had been trained in firearm safety, saying "he knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them."
In a subsequent phone call, the Times reports, an investigator "assured the father he didn't think his son was being dishonest" and "encouraged him to make sure his son's identity had not been stolen." The sheriff's office closed the investigation after concluding it was unclear that Colt Gray was the source of the alleged threat. "Due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI," the report said, "the allegation that Colt or Colin is the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated."
Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum told the Times "her office had investigated last year's threat thoroughly and taken the inquiry as far it could." It seems safe to assume that Colin Gray believed his son's denials, which were persuasive enough for investigators to decide that no further action was justified. It also seems safe to assume that Colin Gray, like the Crumbleys, did not recognize that his son was inclined to commit mass murder.
Prosecutors will have to make the case that Colin Gray's failure to predict that outcome was so egregious that it amounted to criminal negligence. In light of the Crumbley convictions, there seems to be a good chance that a jury will accept that proposition, especially if prosecutors can show that the father ignored the distress that Colt Gray's aunt described. But for every lonely, depressed, and angry teenager who decides to shoot up a high school, there are millions of others who will never do such a thing. Warning signs are always clear in retrospect, and people want to believe that teenagers bent on mass murder can be thwarted if only adults pay enough attention, take "red flags" seriously, and intervene before it is too late. However reassuring that belief might be, it does not justify sending a parent to prison because he never imagined his son was capable of such a horrifying crime.
