Atlanta – In a rare case of a accused father after a shooting at school, a judge on Tuesday granted a bail of $ 500,000 for the father of a 14 -year -old boy accused of a Mortal attack in a high school in Georgia del Norte.
Colin Gray declared innocent of 29 positions, including two second -degree murder positions and two charges of involuntary homicide in relation to the mass shooting of September 4 in Apalachee High School in Winder.
Gray, 54, and his son, Colt Gray, Both were accused In the shooting that killed Two students and two teachers and wounded several others. Both have declared themselves innocent of the charges they face.
Colin Gray He had given his son the assault style weapon as a Christmas gift And he knew that the child’s mental health had deteriorated in the weeks prior to the shooting, the researchers testified at a previous audience. The father also knew that his son was obsessed with school shooters and even had a sanctuary on his home computer for the armed man in the Parkland massacre, Florida, 2018 school, prosecutors say.
At Tuesday’s audience, several relatives of the dead and injured spoke, and some broke crying while describing the loss of their loved one. He was asked that the father remained imprisoned without bail while waiting for the trial.
“I feel that the irresponsibility of Mr. Gray as a father stole my family the opportunity to raise my son,” said Breanna Schermerhorn, whose 14 -year -old son Mason He was killed in the attack.
“What you, the families, is happening, what is happening the community is an undeniable pain, and I understand it,” said Judge Nick Primm.
“This case is an open sore, it is a wound that continues to harm the community,” he added.
Colin Gray’s lawyer Jimmy Berry said the State has not shown that the father would represent any threat if he released on bail.
“The purpose of the bond prior to trial is not to punish him before his conviction,” Berry said.
The judge said it is limited by law to decide bail. Gray is presumed innocent and the law “does not allow me to be emotional,” he said.
Georgia’s law in bond cases implies weighing if there is a risk that Gray flees, if he would represent a danger to the community and if he would try to influence or threaten the witnesses. There has been no evidence that none of that happens if bail is granted, said the judge. Gray received the order not to have contact with witnesses. If you cannot publish the money, it will remain imprisoned.
The judge said he does not believe that Gray can return to Winder, a small town northeast of Atlanta, while waiting for the trial. “In the public opinion court, it has a scarlet letter,” he said.
Before Primm issued his ruling, Colin Gray testified that if Bond was awarded, he would live with his sister in Cherokee County, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Winder.
Colt Gray is accused as an adult and accused of 55 positions, including murder and 25 positions of aggravated assault in high school. His father faces 29 positions, including two second -degree murder positions and two charges of involuntary homicide. Both also face multiple charges of cruelty towards children.
The shooting killed the masters Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Iimie, 53, and the students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were injured, seven of them attacked by shots.
Colin Gray is the first adult known to be accused in a shooting at school in Georgia. His accusation is the last example of prosecutors responsible for the parents of their children’s actions in school shootings. Michigan’s parents, Jennifer and James Crobley, the first to be sentenced in a shooting at the United States mass school, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for not ensuring a firearm at home and acting indifferently to Signals of your child’s mental health before. He killed four students in 2021.
The researchers have said that Colt Gray wore a semi -automatic assault style rifle to a school bus, with the cannon protruding from his bookbag, wrapped in a poster. They say that the child carefully planned the shooting at the high school of 1,900 students northeast of Atlanta, drew diagrams and list the potential body counts in a notebook. He left his second period class and left a bathroom with the rifle before shooting people in a classroom and halls.
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