Father who gave his son the gun used in a Georgia high school shooting faces sentencing

A man who gave his son the gun used to kill two students and two teachers at Appalachee High School in Georgia is set to be sentenced Thursday after he was convicted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Colin Gray’s sentencing comes just days after his 16-year-old son, Colt Gray, pleaded guilty to murder and other charges and was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. The elder Gray is one of a handful of parents around the country who have been charged criminally after their children were accused in shootings.

A jury in March found Colin Gray guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. Gray was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.

Another teacher and eight other students were wounded.

Prosecutors have said that Colin Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift and also bought him ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories.

Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, had shown signs of deteriorating mental health in the weeks leading up to the killings, according to testimony during his sentencing hearing. He also had more than a dozen photos of Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on his bedroom wall, an investigator testified.

The teen’s mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators that she had argued with her estranged husband weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict their son’s access.

Barrow County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jason Smith testified that Colt Gray carried the semiautomatic, assault-style rifle given to him by his father onto the school bus with the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board. The teenager left his second-period class and went to a bathroom, emerging with the rifle and shooting people in the hallway and a classroom, the investigator said.

In interviews with investigators the day of the shooting, Colt Gray falsely said his father had made efforts to hide the gun from him, but the investigation showed that the gun was in the teenager’s bedroom, Smith said.

Second-degree murder is punishable by at least 10 but no more than 30 years in prison, while involuntary manslaughter carries a penalty of one to 10 years in prison.

Colin Gray was also convicted of multiple counts of reckless conduct and cruelty to children.