ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� The Georgia father of an could have prevented an attack that left two students and two teachers dead and many others wounded at a school northeast of Atlanta in 2024, a prosecutor said in her closing argument.
鈥淎fter seeing sign after sign of his son鈥檚 deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school shooter obsession, the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off,” Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told jurors. “And instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator.鈥�
Jimmy Berry, a lawyer for the father, Colin Gray, agreed that what the dad knew ahead of time was of paramount importance in the case.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 real important because that really is the key to this case, is what did he know?,鈥� he said. 鈥淒id he know that Colt would do this?”
Gray鈥檚 son, Colt Gray, is accused of bringing a rifle his father had given him for Christmas to his school and killing two students and two teachers and wounding many others.
In his closing argument, the defense lawyer held up a picture of Colt Gray, and said 鈥渢his is the person who went into the high school and shot and killed four people he didn鈥檛 even know and injured scores of others.鈥�
鈥淭his is the person who needs to be punished,” he said. “He made a conscious decision to do this, a secretive decision.鈥�
began three weeks ago with jury selection. Deliberations are expected Tuesday morning.
Trial looks at parent’s accountability
The trial is one of the latest cases in which after their children are accused in fatal shootings, defense lawyers called Colin Gray to the witness stand. that he gave his son a rifle as a Christmas present in hopes of bonding with the boy over hunting and outings at the gun range.
Prosecutors say he for giving his son the weapon despite alleged threats and warning signs that the boy was mentally unstable.
Colt Gray was 14 at the time of the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. He , including murder, in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault.
The father faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Both sides use images to make their case in closing arguments
Brooks showed photos of teachers and students closing classroom doors to protect the students and comforting teenagers wounded during 41 seconds of gunfire.
鈥淭hose 41 seconds forever altered the lives of the students of Apalachee High School, their parents and everyone in this community,” she said.
But the defense lawyer urged jurors to rely on facts, and not emotion in reaching their verdict. He contends that no one could have foreseen the shooting ahead of time.
鈥淲ho would be able to foresee that a 14 year old is going to take a rifle, as big as it is, as heavy as it is, and stick it in a book bag, get on a bus, come to school, walk down the hall, go to class, put it down on the floor and not one single person sees it,” Berry said. “How foreseeable is that?”
Prosecutors say that’s exactly what happened, and they played surveillance video in the trial they say shows Colt Gray getting on a school bus with a backpack that concealed the rifle.
In the video, he is seen entering the school with the backpack. He walks down several hallways past dozens of students and some employees who don鈥檛 take notice of the large size of the pack. He then begins classes, and later that morning spends several minutes in a bathroom moments before the shooting.
In dramatic testimony as the trial opened last month, several students during their algebra class. They recounted through tears seeing a classmate in a pool of blood, then seeing blood on their own bodies and fearing they might die.
There also has been testimony about what prosecutors describe as a 鈥渟hrine鈥� to a Florida school shooter that Colt Gray kept on a wall next to his computer at home.
He had an interest in , convicted of the that left 14 students and three staff members dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, his mother, Marcee Gray, testified this week.
at Colin Gray’s trial that so that their son could not access them. But in the days before the school shooting, their son kept the gun in his bedroom, witnesses testified at the father鈥檚 trial.
The parents were separated for much of the time leading up to the shooting, and Marcee Gray was not charged with any crimes.
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