Mom of Georgia taking pictures suspect known as college to warn of emergency, aunt says

The mom of the 14-year-old who has been charged with murder over the fatal shooting of four people at his Georgia highschool known as the college earlier than the killings, warning workers of an “excessive emergency” involving her son, a relative stated.

Annie Brown instructed the Washington Put up that her sister, Colt Grey’s mom, texted her saying she spoke with a faculty counselor and urged them to “instantly” discover her son to verify on him.

Brown supplied display photographs of the textual content change to the newspaper, which additionally reported {that a} name log from the household’s shared cellphone plan confirmed a name was made to the college about half-hour earlier than gunfire is believed to have erupted.

Brown confirmed the reporting to The Related Press on Saturday in textual content messages however declined to offer additional remark.

Colt Grey, 14, has been charged with murder over the killing of two college students and two academics at Apalachee Excessive Faculty in Barrow County, exterior Atlanta, on Wednesday. His father, Colin Grey, is accused of second-degree homicide for offering his son with a semiautomatic AR 15-style rifle.

The Georgia teenager had struggled along with his mother and father’ separation and taunting by classmates, his father instructed a sheriff’s investigator final 12 months when requested whether or not his son posted a web-based menace.

“I don’t know something about him saying (expletive) like that,” Grey instructed Jackson County sheriff’s investigator Daniel Miller, in keeping with a transcript of their interview obtained by the AP. “I’m going to be mad as hell if he did, after which all of the weapons will go away.”

Jackson County authorities ended their inquiry into Colt Grey a 12 months in the past, concluding that there wasn’t clear proof to hyperlink him to a menace posted on Discord, a social media website common with video players. The data from that investigation present no less than a slim glimpse right into a boy who struggled along with his mother and father’ breakup and on the center college he attended on the time, the place his father stated others continuously taunted him.

Father says his son was bullied in school

“He will get flustered and underneath stress. He doesn’t actually suppose straight,” Colin Gray instructed the investigator on Might 21, 2023, recalling a dialogue he’d had with the boy’s principal.

Center college had additionally been tough for Colt Grey. He had simply completed the seventh grade when Miller interviewed the daddy and son. Colin Grey stated the boy had just some mates and continuously bought picked on. Some college students “simply ridiculed him day after day after day.”

“I don’t need him to battle anyone, however they only hold like pinching him and touching him,” Grey stated. “Phrases are one factor, however you begin touching him and that’s an entire completely different deal. And it’s simply escalated to the purpose the place like his finals have been final week and that was the very last thing on his thoughts.”

Taking pictures weapons and looking, he stated, have been frequent pastimes for father and son. Grey stated he was encouraging the boy to be extra energetic open air and spend much less time taking part in video video games on his Xbox. When Colt Grey killed a deer months earlier, his father swelled with satisfaction. He confirmed the investigator a photograph on his cellphone, saying: “You see him with blood on his cheeks from taking pictures his first deer.”

“It was simply the best day ever,” Colin Grey stated.

There’s no point out within the investigator’s report and interview transcript of both Grey proudly owning an assault-style rifle. Requested if his son had entry to firearms, the daddy stated sure. However he stated the weapons weren’t stored loaded and insisted he had emphasised security when instructing the boy to shoot.

“He is aware of the seriousness of weapons and what they will do,” Grey stated, “and use them and never use them.”

Household evicted in 2022

An eviction upended the Grays’ household in summer season 2022. On July 25 of that 12 months, a sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the rental dwelling on a suburban cul-de-sac the place Colin Grey, his spouse, Colt and the boy’s two youthful siblings lived. A shifting crew was piling their belongings within the yard.

The Jackson County deputy stated in a report that the movers discovered weapons and looking bows in a closet in the main bedroom. They turned the weapons and ammunition over to the deputy for safekeeping, moderately than go away them exterior with the household’s different possessions exterior.

The deputy wrote that he left copies of receipt kinds for the weapons on the entrance door in order that Grey might decide them up later on the sheriff’s workplace. The explanation for eviction shouldn’t be talked about within the report. Colin Grey instructed the investigator in 2023 that he had paid his lease.

It was following the eviction, he stated, that his spouse left him, taking the 2 youthful siblings along with her. Colt Grey “struggled at first with the separation and all,” stated the daddy, who labored a development job.

“I’m the only supplier, doing excessive rises downtown,” he instructed the investigator. Two days later, there was a follow-up interview with Colin Grey whereas he was at work. He stated by cellphone: “I’m hanging off the highest of a constructing. … I’ve bought a giant crane carry going, so it’s sort of noisy up right here.”

Boy described as quiet

The investigator additionally interviewed the boy, then 13, who was described in a report as quiet, calm and reserved.

He denied making any threats and stated that months earlier he’d stopped utilizing the Discord platform, the place the college menace was posted. He later instructed his father his account had been hacked.

“The one factor I’ve is TikTok, however I simply go on there and watch movies,” the teenager stated.

A 12 months earlier than they’d each find yourself charged in the highschool taking pictures, Colin Grey insisted to the sheriff’s investigator that his son wasn’t the sort to threaten violence.

“He’s not a loner, Officer Miller. Don’t get that,” the daddy stated, including: “He simply needs to go to highschool, do his personal factor and he doesn’t need any hassle.”