Over a year ago, on September 24, a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder occurred and resulted in the deaths of two students and two teachers. A student at the school was the mass killer who had pulled the trigger. But his father, Colin Gray, was arrested for the conviction and planning of the murder, and is now facing over 180 years in prison.
The School Outbreak
In December 2023, Colin Gray purchased a Sig Sauer semi-automatic rifle for his son as a Christmas present. Colt had a shrine dedicated to the Parkland school shooter on his bedroom wall, and like any normal parent, instead of questioning it, he decided to go and buy him a gun so they could bond closer together over hunting and trips to the shooting range, which led to the massive school shooting on September 24th. At around 10:20 in the morning, Colt Gray, who was only fourteen at the time, was in his Algebra class before asking to leave to go to the front office, but that wasn’t the case, as it was just a black lie to distract the teacher from the truth. Instead of heading to the front office like he said he would, he went straight to the school restroom and pulled the gun out of his backpack. Colon had managed to sneak a gun onto the school bus by wrapping the barrel in a poster board so it looked like a school project instead of an actual gun. Ready to follow his plan, he walked out and tried to get back into the classroom, intending to shoot the entire class. Fortunately, one of the students noticed the gun through the door window and warned everyone not to open it. However, this didn’t stop Colt as he started shooting in the hallways. When the school shooting was over, four people in total were dead. Two students, Mason Schermehorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. Nine other people were injured but thankfully survived. What was once a normal school day became a massive killing range.
The Investigation and Trial
When the police finally arrived at the crime scene, they didn’t take long to point the finger at Colin Gray for his history and the clues leading up to him. Prosecutors argued that as a parent, he had a moral and legal duty to protect people from his son because he knew how much Colt was struggling with his mental issues and insanity. To make matters worse for Colin, the police found texts from Colt’s mom to Colin right before the shooting started, saying, “They’re going to need you at the school.” This showed the family knew something was wrong. The police turned Colin in for an investigation, and finally came to an end in March 2026 when the jury found him guilty, only having taken two hours to decide. They found Colin Gray guilty of second-degree murder for the deaths of the two students and involuntary manslaughter for the teachers. By giving a mentally unstable 14-year-old a rifle, the jury decided Colin was definitely responsible and didn’t deserve to be at peace.
The Aftermath
Colt Gray, having only been fourteen at the time when the shooting happened, hadn’t been sentenced to jail as his team was more focused on his mental health, and his trial had been delayed several times for medical evaluations and to see where exactly they should go from here. However, this won’t fully mean that Colt will get to walk away free-handed, as he is going to be charged with first-degree murder when he turns eighteen, which means he will be facing over 50 felony counts that include malice murder. Meanwhile, the students and teachers are still healing from the traumatic experience on what was supposed to be any other school day, and the family has been silent since and hasn’t shared a word to the public.
In conclusion, Colin Gray was a man who destroyed not only his life, but the lives of the people left with the traumatic memory and reminder of what happened on that fateful day. Colt Gray was a young boy who was manipulated by his father. Whether Colin had good intentions or not, he worsened his son’s mental issues and drove him to the brink of madness.
