Father convicted of murder after gifting son rifle that sparked school shooting

A Barrow County jury convicted 55-year-old Colin Gray in early March 2026 of multiple felonies stemming from the Sept. 4, 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, after prosecutors said he gave his son, 14-year-old Colt Gray, a semiautomatic, assault-style rifle the Christmas before the attack. Prosecutors argued Gray enabled the shooting by allowing access to the weapon and ammunition despite prior warning signs.

The rampage at the northeast Atlanta-area high school left four people dead: students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Another teacher and eight students were injured, with reporting indicating seven of the wounded were hit by gunfire. Apalachee High School serves roughly 1,900 students, according to local reporting.

Investigators say Colt Gray boarded a school bus on Sept. 4, 2024 with the rifle in a book bag, the barrel exposed and wrapped in poster board, then left his second-period class, emerged from a bathroom with the gun and opened fire in a classroom and nearby hallways. The weapon is described in court records and testimony as a semiautomatic, assault-style rifle. Prosecutors presented evidence they say shows prior planning and escalation in the weeks before the attack.

The prosecution told jurors that law enforcement had interviewed Colt and his father in May 2023 after anonymous tips to the FBI and local sheriffs about online threats to commit a school shooting. Prosecutors said Colin Gray knew his son was obsessed with school shooters and had a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz. Marcee Gray, the boy’s mother, testified she had urged Colin to take their guns and lock them inside his truck so they were not accessible to their son; she declined to comment after the verdict. Colin Gray testified in his own defense and told the court he never imagined his son would carry out a shooting. Barrow County district attorney Brad Smith said, “This case is about this defendant and his actions, allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that that child was going to harm others.”

The case was tried at the Barrow County Courthouse in Winder over 11 days, with Court TV logs listing trial days beginning Feb. 16, 2026 and concluding March 2, 2026. Jury selection drew panelists from neighboring Hall County, and jurors deliberated less than two hours before returning guilty verdicts, according to local coverage. Court filings and reporting note that Colin Gray had pleaded not guilty to 29 charges before trial; jurors convicted him of second-degree murder in the deaths of the two students, involuntary manslaughter in the teachers’ deaths, and multiple counts of reckless conduct and cruelty to children.

Colt Gray faces a separate indictment of 55 counts, including murder and, in some filings, 25 counts of aggravated assault; he has been charged as an adult and has pleaded not guilty, with a status hearing set for mid-March. Prosecutors and legal observers are treating the conviction as a potentially precedent-setting ruling on parental responsibility when a firearm is given to a child after warnings were raised.