Suspected school shooter Colt Gray told investigators three chilling words shortly after his arrest for the murders of two classmates and two teachers earlier this week: “It was me,” the local sheriff said.
The baby-faced 14-year-old, who is due to appear in court for the first time on Friday after being charged with murder, allegedly made the confession during an interrogation following the bloodshed at Apalachee High School in Georgia, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told CNN.
Gray is accused of firing a volley of shots from an AR-15 rifle at his school in Winder, just outside Atlanta, on Wednesday morning – killing four people and injuring nine.
Authorities said he was taken into custody just minutes after he allegedly shot his victims.
The juvenile suspect, who has since been charged as an adult, is scheduled to appear for the hearing at the Barrow County Courthouse via video from a juvenile detention center.
His first court appearance comes a day after his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, was charged with a number of charges related to the shooting, including giving the boy the gun used in the massacre as a Christmas present last year.
At the time, investigators were desperately trying to determine the teenager’s suspected motive for the massacre and whether there were any other warning signs after authorities first visited his home a year ago.
According to investigators, authorities visited Gray in May last year after the FBI received information that the teenager had made online threats to carry out a school shooting.
According to a sheriff’s report, the teenager denied having threatened to commit the crime.
His father, who was also questioned, told police that he had hunting weapons in the house, but that his son did not have access to them. Officers then asked the father to keep the weapons under lock and key – and advised that Colt should stay away from school “until this matter is resolved.”
However, investigators later put the case on hold when they were unable to arrest anyone due to conflicting evidence about the origin of the social media post, the sheriff’s report said.
Despite the police visit, law enforcement sources told The Post that the father purchased the AR-style assault rifle just months later, allegedly for Colt for Christmas.
Meanwhile, a search of Gray’s home in the wake of Wednesday’s massacre found documents hidden in his bedroom detailing his alleged obsession with other school shootings – including the Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 – law enforcement officials told CNN.
It was not immediately clear what aspects of the shooting Gray had allegedly read or written about.
Gray was charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, as well as two teachers, Richard Aspinwall (39) and Christina Irimie (53).
