Body camera video of investigators' 2023 interview with the teen accused of fatally shooting four people in a Georgia school and his father was released by authorities on Monday.
The interview happened after threats about a school shooting were posted online. The teen, Colt Gray, was questioned about the online threats and denied making them.
The 14-year-old has been charged with four counts of felony murder in the fatal shooting on Sept. 4 of two fellow students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga.
His father, Colin Gray, 54, is the first parent in Georgia to be prosecuted after their child was accused in a school shooting. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children.
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Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Both appeared in court Friday but did not enter pleas.
On Sept. 4, the day of the Apalachee High School shooting, the FBI and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office sheriff’s office released a statement noting the teen had previously been interviewed over a school shooting threat.
The newly released video of the 2023 investigation follows the release of a transcript by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.
The transcript indicates that Investigator Dan Miller and Deputy Justin Elliott had come to the Winder home shared by father and son on May 21, 2023, to ask about a shooting threat made on the Discord platform.
The teen denied making the online threat and said he had deleted his account on the platform.
Colin Gray told the investigator that despite family stress, his son was "doing really good" at school and was constantly under his watchful eyes as he said he had become a frequent visitor to his school.
During the interview, the father explained the family's situation, saying "one day" he rushed home after a deputy called him to report that he was being evicted and that his belongings were outside the residence in an upscale community nearby.
That, Colin Gray said, was part of a series of stressful events for his son that also included bullying at school and the father's separation from the boy's mother, with whom two of their children were staying.
"She took my younger two and went back home with her momma," Colin Gray told the investigator. "Colt and I rented a house and came here."
The father told investigators he was trying to ensure that the youth behaves, respects the power and dangers of firearms and is free of harassment at middle school.
"He struggled at first with the separation and all," Colin Gray said. "He gets flustered under pressure. He doesn't really think straight. Just kind of put your arms around him, get him through seventh grade."
The teen told Miller he completed seventh grade days earlier.
The father said he was teaching his son to hunt as a way to discourage him from playing video games and encourage him to seek outdoor activities.
The remarks came in response to a question by Miller about whether Colin Gray keeps guns at home, and if they were accessible to his then-13-year-old son.
"I mean, there's nothing loaded," Colin Gray said. "Actually, we do a lot of shooting. We do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year."
“You see him with blood on his cheeks from shooting his first deer," Colin Gray said as he showed the investigator a photo. “It was just the greatest day ever."
If his son made a threat to shoot up a school, Colin Gray said, it would make him "mad as hell, and then all the guns will go away.”
Investigators determined there wasn't enough evidence to tie Colt to the school shooting threat, which had been forwarded by the FBI. There were no arrests or referrals to prosecutors related to that threat, according to investigative documents.
Two law enforcement sources familiar with the Georgia school shooting investigation said Colin Gray had purchased an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle as a gift to his son after the 2023 threat investigation.
No connections between that weapon and last week's school shooting have been made by authorities, but they did say the weapon used was based on the AR-15 platform.
Apalachee High students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14; and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, were killed in last week's shooting.
Officials have said another teacher and eight other students were injured, including seven who were hit by gunfire.
School officials have not set a date for the 1,900 students who attend Apalachee to return to classes.
Juliette Arcodia contributed.
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