Fourteen-year-old Colt Gray's troubled life includes him once allegedly having a Discord screenname referencing the Sandy Hook Elementary killer Adam Lanza.
The suspected gunman who killed four people at Apalachee High School on Wednesday will be charged with murder and tried as an adult for the shooting deaths of two teachers and two students.
But this was not law enforcement's first interaction with Gray before he was a student at Apalachee High School.
On May 22, 2023, members of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office went to the home of his father Colin Gray with whom he lived to investigate multiple tips from the FBI from a Discord user that the teenager allegedly threatened to shoot up a middle school the next day.
In a police report obtained by Newsweek, Colin Gray told officials that his family was evicted from their prior address in Jefferson, Georgia. He and his wife were divorced, and she took the two younger kids while he and Colt moved together.
Colin Gray stated son had problems at West Jackson Middle School in Hoschton, Georgia, and was going to Jefferson Middle School about 17 minutes away, where things got better.
Ed Hooper, spokesperson for the Jackson County School System, confirmed to Newsweek that Colt Gray completed sixth grade at West Jackson Middle School and started seventh grade on July 29, 2022. He was unenrolled on August 19, 2022.
Hooper was unable to discuss any potential disciplinary measures handed down to Colin Gray due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, also known as FERPA laws. Hooper did confirm the bomb threat was not made at their school.
Colin Gray said he had hunting rifles in the home but he was not allowed to use them unsupervised.
Officials also spoke to Colt, who appeared "calm and reserved." The then 13-year-old claimed he used to have a Discord account but deleted it before moving in with his dad because it kept getting hacked. Colt claimed someone accused him of threatening to shoot up a school, but he would never say such a thing, not even as a joke.
Discord is a platform for hosting real-time text, video, and voice chat, often used by gamers and streamers.
Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump, also had a Discord that was "rarely utilized," a spokesperson for platform said. Crooks did, however, write an ominous message on the gaming platform Steam.
"July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds," he posted.
FBI tips included an email address belonging to Colt Gray associated with the Discord account in question. IP addresses from around the time that the family was evicted from their house show that the Discord account was used in either Fort Valley or Statesboro, Georgia, and possibly Buffalo, NY.
The user profile name of the Discord account linked to Colt Gray was written in Russian, officials report. Translated to English, the name spells "Lanza," allegedly referring to Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter Adam Lanza. On December 14, 2012, Lanza shot and killed 20 victims between the ages of 6 six and seven years old as well as six adult staff members. He killed himself with a gunshot to the head as first responders arrived.
Colin Gray told officials that his son does not know or speak Russian. Investigators determined that the allegation that Colin Gray or Colt Gray was behind the Discord account could not be substantiated.
Newsweek's attempts to reach Colin Gray were unsuccessful.
During a news conference late Wednesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey told reporters that investigations into the shooting were ongoing and that officers were still working to determine how Colt Gray was able to bring an "AR-platform-style weapon" into the school building.
"We're still trying to clarify a lot of the timeline from the time that he got here to school today until the incident," Hosey added.
The victims included two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, as well as two teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. The other victims who were hospitalized after the shooting are expected to survive their injuries; Hosey said the nine people injured are "going to recover well."
"We don't expect any more fatalities at this time," Hosey said.
Apalachee High School student Lyela Sayarath described Colt Gray as "pretty quiet" and said he skipped class often in an interview with CNN.
"Even when he would've talked, it was one-word answers or short statements," Sayarath said.
How Should Police Respond to Shooting Threats?
Newsweek spoke to several experts on gun violence prevention about the importance of addressing school shooting threats.
"Law enforcement certainly should be taking threats of school violence seriously and utilizing the tools they have at their disposal to reduce these threats," Lindsay Nichols, policy director for GIFFORDS Law Center, said. "The legal tools that are available to law enforcement differ dramatically among states.
Joshua Horwitz, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, explained that law enforcement officials often do not have the tools they need to properly investigate the threat.
"Law enforcement in Georgia and in 29 states don't have access to Red Flag laws, and lawmakers should provide law enforcement with that tool so you don't have to wait for a tragedy or even for a violent crime to be committed. You get to be proactive," Horwitz said.
Dr. Ron Avi Astor, professor at UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs and School of Education, said once officials determine there is not an immediate threat, they often do not continue to follow up.
"I think many law enforcement feel, legally, their hands are tied," Astor said.
While not much is known about the suspect's motive, Astor explained some common traits shared among school shooters.
"Many of these shooters are also suicidal," Astor said. "But suicidal thoughts are fleeting, and they may have been thinking about that at one point, and then when they were confronted with the actual moment, change their mind."
Astor said a common goal among shooters is to terrorize on a national level.
"It's not necessarily always to target one person or just somebody with mental health issues, the way it's been framed in Congress and [with] other people," Astor said. "The goal is to commit terror for every child and parent in the United States and they use the media to do that."
Nichols said these tragedies are preventable.
"They shouldn't happen, and they are traumatizing an entire generation," Nichols said.
Horwitz encouraged people to advocate for gun safety and contact their elected officials.
"It's just going to take time and take good organizing, but elected officials count on people to forget about things and not do anything. Don't be one of those people," Horwitz said.
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com
