Alleged Apalachee High School Shooter Colt Gray, 14, Previously Investigated by FBI

Alleged Apalachee HS Shooter Colt Gray, 14, Probed over 2023 School Shooting Threats

The FBI has revealed that Colt Gray, the 14-year-old sus­pect­ed of the dead­ly shoot­ing at Apalachee High School in Winder, Geor­gia, was pre­vi­ous­ly inves­ti­gat­ed by the bureau in 2023 over online threats to car­ry out a school shooting.

Accord­ing to a state­ment from the FBI’s Atlanta field office, in May 2023, the bureau received sev­er­al anony­mous tips about threats to com­mit vio­lence at an uniden­ti­fied school. The tips includ­ed pho­tos of guns, prompt­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion by the Jack­son Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office.

FBI’s Prior Investigation into Colt Gray

The inves­ti­ga­tors iden­ti­fied Gray, then 13 years old, as a pos­si­ble sus­pect and inter­viewed him and his father. Gray’s father told author­i­ties that he had hunt­ing guns in the house, but his son did not have unsu­per­vised access to them. Gray him­self denied mak­ing the school shoot­ing threats.

While there was no prob­a­ble cause to take fur­ther action at the time, local schools were alert­ed “for con­tin­ued mon­i­tor­ing” of Gray, accord­ing to the FBI statement.

Ongoing Probe into Connection to Apalachee High School Shooting

Geor­gia Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion Direc­tor Chris Hosey con­firmed that author­i­ties are now prob­ing any pos­si­ble links between the 2023 threats and the shoot­ing at Apalachee High School on Sep­tem­ber 4th, 2024.

“This is not recent. This is in the past, but we want­ed to bring that to your atten­tion because we are pur­su­ing that, work­ing with the FBI on this in any con­nec­tion to that inci­dent that could be con­nect­ed to today’s inci­dent as well,” Hosey told reporters.

Inves­ti­ga­tors have also been made aware that Gray’s fam­i­ly had pri­or con­tact with chil­dren’s ser­vices in the area, and they are pur­su­ing that avenue as well to see if it has any con­nec­tion to the lat­est tragedy.

The shoot­ing at Apalachee High School left two stu­dents, Mason Scher­mer­horn and Chris­t­ian Angu­lo, both 14, and two math teach­ers, Richard Aspin­wall and Christi­na Irim­ie, dead. Anoth­er nine peo­ple were hos­pi­tal­ized with gun­shot wounds, includ­ing a spe­cial edu­ca­tion math teacher, David Phenix.

Gray, who “imme­di­ate­ly sur­ren­dered” to school resource offi­cers, will be charged with mur­der as an adult. The motive for the shoot­ing remains under investigation.