By Joe Johnson
When 14-year-old Colt Gray rode the bus to
Apalachee High School on the morning of Sept. 4, he had a rifle hidden in a poster board that looked like a school project, surveillance video showed, according to an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The teen used the weapon to kill two students and two teachers, and injure nine others.
A GBI agent who had viewed surveillance footage from the bus and the school appeared in Barrow County Superior Court last week to describe what was in the videos during a probable cause hearing in the case against the teenage defendant’s father, Colin Gray.
On the morning of the shooting, Colt Gray left a notebook on his desk in math class, went to the bathroom with his backpack and came out of the bathroom with gloves on and the poster board in front of him, appearing to hide the AR-15-style rifle, the GBI agent said.
He then entered another classroom and started shooting, the agent said. About six or seven people were shot during the approximately seven seconds the gunman was inside the room.
Gray then ran back toward the bathrooms, and at 10:22 a.m. he aimed his rifle at a teacher and fired multiple shots, the agent said. He then turned toward another hallway and shot two coaches, then a student who came out of a bathroom was shot and killed.
Two school resource officers entered the hallway and ordered Gray to put down the rifle and surrender, the agent said.
The notebook that Gray left on his desk contained a plan on how to execute the shooting, an estimated possible casualty count and sketches of his classroom, according to the agent.
Colt Gray was arrested on murder charges while Colin Gray is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. Colin Gray is accused of knowingly allowing his son to possess the weapon used in the shooting.