Shooting suspect’s mom drove 200 miles to Winder, Georgia, after getting cryptic text the morning of the school attack

By CNN

Published September 6, 2024 10:14 pm

WANF, WXIA, CNN

By Isabel Rosales, Sara Smart and Dalia Faheid, CNN

(CNN) — The mother of the teenager suspected of killing four people during a shooting at a Winder, Georgia, high school called to warn a school counselor before the attack, according to the suspect’s aunt and grandfather.

Colt Gray, 14, apologized to his mother, Marcee Gray, on the morning of the mass shooting at Apalachee High School — sending an alarming, cryptic text Wednesday that prompted the mother to warn the school that something could be wrong, his grandfather told CNN, confirming information he first provided to the New York Post.

“I’m sorry, mom,” the text read, according to Marcee Gray’s father, Charles Polhamus, who said he was standing near his daughter at his home in Fitzgerald, Georgia, when she received the message.

The mother called the school about an unspecified “extreme emergency” involving Colt Gray sometime before the shooting began, Marcee Gray’s sister Annie Brown told the Washington Post and later confirmed to CNN.

A 10-minute call was placed from Marcee Gray’s phone to the school at 9:50 a.m., the Washington Post reported – about 30 minutes before police were notified of the shooting.

According to the Post, Brown has a shared phone plan with the family, which allowed her to see a log of the calls made by her sister.

After a 10-minute phone conversation, Polhamus said, his daughter and her mother then began the 200-mile drive from Fitzgerald to Winder.

Marcee Gray later confirmed the call to the Washington Post, which reported she “declined to elaborate on what had prompted her to call in the warning to the school, but said she had shared that information with law enforcement.”

“I am so, so sorry and can not fathom the pain and suffering they are going through right now,” she told the Washington Post in a text.

Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of murder after committing the mass shooting, prosecutors said. He will be tried as an adult and is expected to face additional charges in connection with the wounded and injured victims.

Marcee Gray broke her silence Saturday, apologizing to those affected for the “absolutely horrific” shooting.

The Barrow County School District did not return CNN’s request for comment. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation referred CNN’s request for comment to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.

CNN has reached out to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office Saturday evening. CNN has also reached out to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, who previously said he had no knowledge of any phone call to the school before the shooting.

Here’s what we know about the shooting – the 45th school shooting of 2024, and the deadliest US school shooting since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville:

• The four people killed: The shooting at Apalachee High School claimed the lives of two 14-year-old students – Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, as well as two teachers – 53-year-old math teacher Cristina Irimie and 39-year-old assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall, who also taught math. Authorities say Irimie was celebrating her birthday with her students the day she was shot and killed, according to a family friend.

• Nine injured are expected to make a full recovery: Of the nine other people injured, seven of them – six students and a teacher – were shot, the GBI said Thursday. The other two – both students – suffered other injuries, the GBI said.

• Suspect was questioned about online threats: In May 2023, law enforcement officials questioned Colt Gray and his father, Colin Gray, about “online threats to commit a school shooting” that included photos of guns, according to a joint statement from FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. Colt Gray, who was 13 at the time, told investigators during that interview that “someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” authorities said. Authorities could not substantiate the threats and the investigation was closed, according to the sheriff’s office.

• Suspect’s father charged: Two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said Colin Gray, 54, told authorities he purchased the AR-style rifle used in the school shooting as a holiday present for his son in December 2023 – just months after authorities initially contacted the father about the online threats. Colin Gray faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

• Suspect had writings on past school shootings: During questioning, Colt Gray told investigators, “I did it,” according to the Barrow County sheriff. As authorities searched his home, they found documents that they believe he wrote referencing past school shootings, including references to the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, a law enforcement source told CNN.

• Shows of support: Ahead of the Georgia Bulldogs’ kick-off against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles Saturday, a moment of silence was observed to honor those affected by the shooting. Also on Saturday, in front of the high school, more than 100 motorcyclists from different motorcycle clubs staged a rally to show their support. The Atlanta Falcons on Sunday wore Apalachee Wildcats T-shirts during pregame warmups for their NFL game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

• Students recount harrowing shooting: In one classroom, a 14-year-old said she kept the suspect from getting through the door when she saw him holding a gun. And after a teacher in another classroom was shot, students say they pulled him back inside and used the shirts off their backs to try and stop his bleeding while barricading the door with desks and chairs. One teenage boy said he raced to close his classroom door to prevent the shooter from entering – only to realize he had been shot.

A community grieves

Victims’ families wiped away tears or clutched stuffed animals as they sat in the Barrow County courtroom Friday during Colt Gray’s arraignment, where he declined to enter a plea to the charges against him.

Because of his young age, the maximum penalty Gray could face is life in prison with or without parole, Judge Currie Mingledorff told the teenager in court. In 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled no one can be put to death for crimes committed before the age of 18.

The next step in the case against Gray will be a grand jury meeting on October 17. This will be followed by a scheduled arraignment before the trial process is started, Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 4, Mingledorff said.

Separately, Colin Gray faces a maximum sentence of 180 years in prison for the charges brought against him. An arrest warrant for Colin Gray alleges he gave his son a firearm “with knowledge he was a threat to himself and others.”

“I’m just trying to use the tools in my arsenal to prosecute people for the crimes they commit,” District Attorney Smith said.

Colin Gray also declined to enter a plea at his first court appearance Friday, and neither he nor his son asked for bail to be set at their hearings.

CNN has sought comment from the public defenders representing Colt Gray and his father.

For survivors and others, a community recovery center will open in Barrow County on Monday to offer financial assistance, legal services and spiritual and mental health care, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency announced Friday.

In the meantime, it’s unclear when classes will resume at Apalachee High School. Officials are still determining the next steps, though plans are being finalized for people to pick up their belongings from the school on Monday, principal Jessica Rehberg said in a letter to students’ parents, a copy of which was obtained by CNN.

“We are determining the right way to move ahead, and we are compassionately planning the details of our future,” Rehberg wrote in the letter Sunday.

The rest of the Barrow County school system is expected to return to class Tuesday.

Student says she didn’t open the door after spotting a gun

Bri Jones, 14, was in second period Wednesday when Colt Gray left the classroom, Jones said. “We didn’t notice he left,” Jones said, adding that he was “always quiet.”

But Gray came back and knocked on the door, Jones said.

Bri said she peeked out the door before she opened it because that’s what her mom taught her to do.

“As I was looking at the door, he was pulling his gun out, and then I froze up, like I froze up and I said ‘no’ to myself,” she said.

The teacher asked for the door to be opened, Bri said, “because she didn’t know he had a gun because she was at her desk.” As she went to open the door, “I was like, ‘No, he has a gun,’” Jones said.

Then, the shooter looked up at them before turning and firing shots, Jones said.

“He was looking at me, my teacher, and then somebody was in the hall,” she said. “He turned his head and he just started shooting.”

The students then ran to the back of the class and the teacher turned off the lights, Bri said.

“Once he started shooting, it’s like he kept going, it was so many gunshots after gunshots,” she said. “It felt like he was just shooting forever.”

If she had opened the class door, Bri said she believes the suspect “would have got every single one of us in that class.”

Another student, 14-year-old Ronaldo Vega, immediately took cover under his desk when the shooting began in his second-period math class, he said, believing he heard four to six shots. After, he stood up and quickly closed the classroom door so the shooter “couldn’t come back,” he said.

Only after seeing one of the bullets behind the teacher’s desk did he realize he had been shot and was bleeding, Ronaldo said.

Students took the shirts off to try to save their math teacher

Richard Aspinwall, a math teacher, heard commotion outside his classroom and entered the hallway to see what was going on. When he did, he was shot in the chest by the 14-year-old suspect, according to family friend Julie Woodson, who cited accounts by Aspinwall’s students.

“We had to watch our teacher come back in the classroom holding himself like he’s been shot, and fell to the floor,” 17-year-old Malasia Mitchell said. “And as he kept going, my teacher was shot again.”

Students in the class say they pulled Aspinwall back into the classroom and used the shirts off their backs to try and stop their teacher’s bleeding, according to Woodson.

Meanwhile, the students closed the door and protected themselves with desks and chairs, Mitchell said.

Woodson said Aspinwall “died as a hero trying to save his students’ lives.”

“If he didn’t walk out and take the bullet … who knows what would’ve happened,” Woodson said.

Malasia remembered her teacher as a “great guy” with “such a happy spirit” — someone who wouldn’t want her to ever give up.

“He wouldn’t want me to just stop coming to school,” she said. “He would want me to keep going.”

CNN’s Scott Glover, Keith Allen, Ashley R. Williams, Rebekah Riess, Holly Yan, Mark Morales, Ryan Young, Isabel Rosales, Chelsea Bailey, Sara Smart, Jaide Timm-Garcia, Raja Razek, Jade Gordon and Steve Sorg contributed to this report.

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