On Wednesday, September 4, 14-year-old student Colt Grey opened fire with a black AR-15 rifle at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Officials reported four fatalities, two students and two teachers, making the tragedy the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history. In addition, nine other students were injured and taken to the hospital following Colt Grey’s surrender to school resource officers.
Grey, who was arrested and indicted for four counts of felony murder, had a traumatic childhood, which was documented by law enforcement last year following an FBI investigation into online threats associated with the suspect’s email about “Shooting up a middle school.” During the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation into these threats, Colin Grey, the suspect’s father, told investigators he was no longer with his wife, the family had been evicted, and he owned several guns. He also told investigators that he was teaching his son about “firearms and safety.” Unbeknownst to FBI investigators, Grey purchased his son an AR-15 rifle as a gift; his lawyer has declined to say whether there were gun locks in the house.
Colin Grey was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children3 and could face up to 180 years in prison if convicted. The severity of these charges will test the limits of parental responsibility in the U.S. legal system, as they are dependent on the implications of Grey providing access to the weapon used by the 14-year shooter and what he knew about his son’s mental state.
These charges being brought against Grey are only the second time the parents of a mass shooter have been charged in connection to their child’s attack. In February and March, the mother and father of teen shooter Ethan Crumbly were each convicted of two counts of manslaughter in separate trials. Those convictions were based on information they possessed regarding their child’s mental state prior to the shooting and their provision of the gun used for it. While not as drastic as the charges brought against Grey, these cases and their resulting convictions have set a loose precedent for determining parental responsibility in school shootings.
Hauntingly, the context of the charges in both cases is similar, as both fathers bought the weapons for their sons as gifts shortly before the shootings. In addition to the initial acquisition of the weapons, the 9mm handgun used in Crumbly’s case was not properly locked up prior to the shooting—the security of the storage of the weapon in Grey’s case has yet to be determined—which a juror told NBC News had influenced the jury towards a guilty verdict against the parents.
Despite these similarities, the precedent from the Michigan case is not enough to predict a conviction for Grey; His more severe charges of second-degree murder and the additional child cruelty ones will hinge on whether prosecutors can prove gross negligence and if Grey knowingly endangered public safety. The final key difference in the prosecutions and available evidence in these two cases is the degree to which Colin Grey was aware of his son’s violent thoughts—something the Crumblys were proven to have been keenly aware of. While Grey was aware of his son’s online threats which suggested his inclination towards violence in school, prosecutors must prove that his knowledge warranted a lasting concern for the teenager’s mental state, as the messages were from a year prior to the shooting.
Whether Grey is convicted or not, these charges demonstrate an emerging shift in school shooting cases involving minors. The legal system is beginning to explore the extent of parental responsibility, and the severity of punishments brought against parents when they violate their obligations to ensure the proper storage of firearms in their homes and to protect the mental well-being of their children.
