By Joe Johnson
In a 2023 interview with law enforcement, stemming for alleged threats his son had made online, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colin Gray said that his son had been bullied in school "for being gay."
Colin Gray told police that his 14-year-old son was "ridiculed" in school "day after day after day" and "It was very difficult for him to go to school and not get picked on.”
According to documents, the elder Gray - who has also been arrested and charged with second-degre murder - added: "It went from one thing to another... I was trying to get him on the golf team... [they were like], "Oh, look, Colt's gay. He's dating that guy."
Colt has been charged as an adult for the deaths of fellow students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53. Nine others were alos injured in withe mass shooting at the high school in Winder.
The elder Gray was also charged with murder and involuntary manslaughter because, officials said, he "knowingly allowed" Colt to have access to firearms after his son had made threats of gun violence,
Additionally, officials said, Colin gave to his son the weapon used in the shooting as a Christmas gift.
When interviewed by police in 2023 Colin said he had recently separated from Colt’s mother, and that “she took his younger two kids,” leaving him to take care of Colt. He said that Colt had been struggling at Jefferson Middle School.
The elder Gray said that Colt “gets flustered and under pressure,” and “doesn’t really think straight.”
Colin said that in exposing his son to firearms he was trying to teach him about weapons and get his son interested in the outdoors in an attempt to “get him away from those video games.”
“He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” Colin Grey said in the 2023 interview with police.
Everyone failed this kid.