Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / COLT GRAY, 14, MOTHER WARNS SCHOOL AFTER TEXT FROM SON: 13 SHOT, DAD CONVICTED

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COLT GRAY, 14, MOTHER WARNS SCHOOL AFTER TEXT FROM SON: 13 SHOT, DAD CONVICTED · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:06
Speaker 2: A Georgia dad sits emotionless in court when a jury
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Speaker 2: says you're guilty of twenty nine counts after his son,
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Speaker 2: Colt Gray, allegedly murders four people in a deadly high
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Speaker 2: school shooting. But how was the father found guilty? I'm
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Speaker 2: Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank
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Speaker 2: you for being with us. A Georgia dad guilty on
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Speaker 2: twenty nine counts after his son reportedly murders four people
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Speaker 2: in a high school shooting. The dad, Colin Gray, fifty four,
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Speaker 2: sat emotionless as his fate was announced in court, the
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Speaker 2: jury taking less than two hours to decide he was
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Speaker 2: responsible for a fatal rampage at Appalachi High The son,
1:01
Speaker 2: Colt Gray, fourteen, charged with carrying out the massacre with
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Speaker 2: an A R fifteen given to him as a Christmas
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Speaker 2: gift by his dad. The son cult awaiting trial, reportedly
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Speaker 2: opening fire inside the school, killing two students, Mason Shermerhorn
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Speaker 2: just fourteen, Christian and Guilo also fourteen. Also did two teachers,
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Speaker 2: Richard aspen Wall and Christina Erme. Nine others were injured.
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Speaker 2: What happened that deadly morning did his mother actually warn
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Speaker 2: the school of an extreme emergency after she gets a
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Speaker 2: chilling text from her son thirteen shot and and a
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Speaker 2: bizarre twist almost unheard of in our American jurisprudence. His
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Speaker 2: father is also arrested. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
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Speaker 3: Thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 4: Wednesday morning, Appalachi High School in winder Georgia, fourteen year
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Speaker 4: old Cold Gray steps out of his algebra classroom. Moments later,
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Speaker 4: chaos unfolds as gunshots ring out.
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Speaker 2: Every parent in America's head is spinning. How did he
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Speaker 2: get in school with a gun? Why was he let
2:34
Speaker 2: out of class to wander the halls unchaperoned? And did
2:40
Speaker 2: the school know ahead of time that he was an
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Speaker 2: eminent threat to the other students? This as we learn
2:49
Speaker 2: he had been underwatched by the FBI and nothing was
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Speaker 2: done by local authorities.
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Speaker 5: And how does his father end up in jail? Maybe
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Speaker 5: it's because he gave his troubled son in a r
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Speaker 5: for Christmas. Assault Rifle with me an all star panel
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Speaker 5: to make sense of what we are learning now, but
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Speaker 5: straight out to special guests joining us as part.
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Speaker 2: Of, as I said, an all Star panel.
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Speaker 3: I want to first speak.
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Speaker 2: To Sonya Turner joining us from winder Georgia, mother of
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Speaker 2: two girls at the school. Ms Turner, thank you for
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Speaker 2: being with us, Thank you for having me. I know
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Speaker 2: this is going to run a chill down your spine,
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Speaker 2: but listen.
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Speaker 6: The door flew open, and all I saw was, when
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Speaker 6: I turned around for a few seconds, was a figure
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Speaker 6: with a pretty large gun aiming out all the students.
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Speaker 3: Ms.
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Speaker 2: Turner, when you think about your girls in that school,
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Speaker 2: the fact that they are alive today is a miracle.
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Speaker 2: And when that guy says, yeah, we got to be quick,
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Speaker 2: I guess so because there's an active shooter into school.
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Speaker 3: What happened?
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Speaker 7: So I had just dropped my oldest daughter, she's fifteen,
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Speaker 7: about to be sixteen off she's a sophomore, about forty
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Speaker 7: five minutes maybe less before this happened. She was late
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Speaker 7: going in that day. My other daughter was already there.
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Speaker 7: And then I was sitting down to rest because I
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Speaker 7: was still supposed to be on bed rest from a
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Speaker 7: major abdominal surgery the week before, and I got a
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Speaker 7: text that said, Mom, we're on lockdown. I hear gunshots
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Speaker 7: and I think some of your producers had seen that text.
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Speaker 7: At the Washington Post to put together in a video.
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Speaker 7: It's word by word. They left the typos even so
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Speaker 7: I started texting with her, trying to calm her, trying
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Speaker 7: to reassure her. I got the kids into a group text,
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Speaker 7: so I had Izzie and Abby both in that text
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Speaker 7: message together. In between that, I'm calling my husband telling
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Speaker 7: him to go go to the kids. He was on
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Speaker 7: a job site not too far away. The first text
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Speaker 7: for my daughter came in at ten twenty three, which
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Speaker 7: is actually when I think they're reporting that everything started.
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Speaker 7: She was on that end of the hall. She wasn't
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Speaker 7: on that exact hall, but she was on that end
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Speaker 7: of the building. So I'm texting with her. I'm texting
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Speaker 7: my media. Other texts went to my pastor. My pastor
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Speaker 7: ended up getting on the phone with us in praying.
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Speaker 7: While I'm texting my daughters, they're telling me they're scared.
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Speaker 7: They hear gunshots. I'm having them assess their location. Can
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Speaker 7: you get anywhere safer? What can you do? Like we're coming.
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Speaker 7: They're telling me they hear sirens. I'm just reassuring them
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Speaker 7: that that's help on the way. In the meantime of
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Speaker 7: texting my daughters and keeping that line of communication open.
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Speaker 7: I was born and raised here in winder This is
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Speaker 7: my home. I've lived here forty five years. Everyone I
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Speaker 7: know had someone at that school that day. The sea
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Speaker 7: of law enforcement, you could just hear it. It was
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Speaker 7: bone chilling, and all I could do I texted the
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Speaker 7: Lord's Prayer. It's not all I could do. It was
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Speaker 7: the thing to do. I think the thing that stands
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Speaker 7: out to me the most right now that I haven't
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Speaker 7: really wrapped my head around is well, there's a lot
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Speaker 7: of things I haven't wrapped my head around. But in
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Speaker 7: the prayer with my pastor, which he did not even remember,
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Speaker 7: I'm sure you've thought most of these don't end with
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Speaker 7: the shooter alive.
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Speaker 3: In this case, my pastor.
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Speaker 7: Prayed with me for him to stop in his tracks
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Speaker 7: whatever he was doing, and lay that gun down. And
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Speaker 7: I'm telling you the timing is spot on. You'll never
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Speaker 7: convince me that wasn't my God that day that saved
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Speaker 7: those lives. And the quick response from our law enforcement,
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Speaker 7: who have trained so hard for this moment that they
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Speaker 7: hoped they'd never have to.
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Speaker 3: Use, sown up.
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Speaker 2: When you said you are texting Lord's Prayer? What else
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Speaker 2: could you do? There was nothing more you could do.
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Speaker 7: It was the first thing I needed to do. It
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Speaker 7: wasn't the last, it was the first, and I have
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Speaker 7: somehow become a mama to the mamas. It's a long story.
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Speaker 7: It started back during COVID, where I'd created a group
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Speaker 7: where eight thousand moms have come together and stayed together
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Speaker 7: since twenty twenty, and that has I was inspired to
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Speaker 7: do that group for moms of parents at Appalachi, and
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Speaker 7: I've started that online and I'm watching the stories feed
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Speaker 7: in and I'm hearing the pain and their voices and
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Speaker 7: what they need, and it's a place that we can
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Speaker 7: all safely come and try to share what is working,
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Speaker 7: what is not working, what our students are going through,
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Speaker 7: how we're helping. I have friends who were bus drivers
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Speaker 7: who were trapped sitting there waiting to evacuate that school
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Speaker 7: and get those babies home while their kids were there
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Speaker 7: and they couldn't do any thing. I have friends that
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Speaker 7: were teachers in the school immediately next door. One of
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Speaker 7: those her daughter was waiting on this child to get
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Speaker 7: back to go to the bathroom, and one of her
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Speaker 7: classmates just happened to get up to go let him
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Speaker 7: in and looked out and saw that he had a
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Speaker 7: gun and did not open that door. She saved that
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Speaker 7: entire classroom that day.
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Speaker 2: Sonia, When you get the text, when you get a text, Mommy,
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Speaker 2: I'm so scared.
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Speaker 3: What went through your mind?
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Speaker 7: I wasn't sure if I was going to see my
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Speaker 7: kids at the end of the day. I kept thinking,
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Speaker 7: this can't be our story, this can't be our town.
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Speaker 7: It doesn't happen here, which I think everybody thinks. I
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Speaker 7: just knew that. I kept telling them that Mommy was coming,
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Speaker 7: got he was coming, We were coming. Obviously we knew
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Speaker 7: we couldn't get in that school, but they needed the
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Speaker 7: reassurance that it didn't matter. We were coming and everybody
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Speaker 7: was coming. There were parents that happened to be passing
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Speaker 7: the school. I live a mile and a quarter from
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Speaker 7: the school to my subdivision entrance. There were parents that
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Speaker 7: were just in the area that have kids in those schools,
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Speaker 7: that saw the sea of law enforcement and paramedics and firefighters,
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Speaker 7: and they were freaking out because they didn't know what
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Speaker 7: was going on, or they had kids in all three
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Speaker 7: schools of the cluster and didn't know which school to
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Speaker 7: go to.
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Speaker 3: First, joining us.
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Speaker 2: In addition, to Sonya Turner, the mom of two girls
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Speaker 2: at the school, is another Atlanta parent with children in
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Speaker 2: the Atlanta schools, And I'm wondering straight out to Chris
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Speaker 2: Hubbard is joining us, how does what Sonya Turner is saying,
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Speaker 2: how does that affect all the other parents in the
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Speaker 2: area and frankly across the country. Wh we heard about
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Speaker 2: the schools shooting right here under your nose?
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Speaker 1: What goes through your mind?
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Speaker 2: I mean, how can you keep sending your children to
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Speaker 2: school when this happens over and over and over. There
10:12
Speaker 2: were warnings, there were calls, there were reports, but yet
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Speaker 2: thirteen shot Nan.
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Speaker 8: It's heart wrenching. Yeah. I was coming out of a
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Speaker 8: meeting and I saw the news alerts on my phone
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Speaker 8: and then I was like, another school shooting. This is unbelievable.
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Speaker 8: And then I saw it in Georgia and my heart
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Speaker 8: dropped even further. And Sonya, I can't imagine what you're
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Speaker 8: going through and what those families are going through. Too
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Speaker 8: close to home in winder Georgia, too close to home
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Speaker 8: here in Atlanta, and it's just too much the norm
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Speaker 8: in this country, and it's hard to deal with.
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Speaker 2: I mean, when I'm looking at these texts. I text
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Speaker 2: my children all during the day, even though they have
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Speaker 2: a no phone policy. I think, well, somehow during the
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Speaker 2: day they might check their phone and not get caught.
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Speaker 2: But Sonia, when you have your child saying Mommy, I'm scared,
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Speaker 2: and all you can.
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Speaker 3: Say back is stay down, stay hidden. I will come
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Speaker 3: and get you. And then when you get there, you
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Speaker 3: can't get close to the school.
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Speaker 7: YEP, it's paralyzing again.
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Speaker 2: Joining us In addition to Sonya Turner and Chris Hubbard,
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Speaker 2: right now, Chase McGhee is joining US. Senior newsroom producer GPB. Chase,
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Speaker 2: thank you for being with us. What do we know
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Speaker 2: about exactly what happened that morning? But before you start,
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Speaker 2: take a listen to this.
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Speaker 9: At approximately ten twenty am this morning, the Barrett County
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Speaker 9: Sheriff's Office received alerts about reports of an active shooter
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Speaker 9: and radio traffic from school resource officers concerning the same
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Speaker 9: concern or having the same concern.
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Speaker 10: All of our teachers are armed with a form of
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Speaker 10: an ID called scyentigics, and scentigics arms us and alerts
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Speaker 10: the law enforcement office. After buttons are pressed on an
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Speaker 10: ID and it alerts us that there is an active
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Speaker 10: situation at the school for whatever reason, and that was
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Speaker 10: pressed and we've had that about a week now.
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Speaker 2: Chase McGee, let me understand, Let me understand what I'm hearing.
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Speaker 2: So all the teachers are equipped with some type of
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Speaker 2: device on their person or at their desk and if
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Speaker 2: they press it, that sends out the alarm.
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Speaker 11: Hey, yeah, that's right, Nancy, thanks for having me to
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Speaker 11: my understanding. A lot of schools in Northeast Georgia started
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Speaker 11: rolling out this program. I believe these schools and Winder
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Speaker 11: had these cards for about two days on their person,
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Speaker 11: so that's two days training ahead of the shooting, and
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Speaker 11: it essentially works like a you press it and it
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Speaker 11: lets law enforcement know where in the buildings that there's
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Speaker 11: this incident going on. And in early press conferences they
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Speaker 11: credit that and school resource officers on campus with a
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Speaker 11: really quick response time to stop the shooting.
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Speaker 2: School resource officers on campus and one student you heard
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Speaker 2: Sonya Turner her children at that school state that one
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Speaker 2: of the children had gone out to the bathroom and
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Speaker 2: was coming back in as I understand, and sees the
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Speaker 2: shooter in the hall, that child that close to death,
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Speaker 2: and would not let him in the door.
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Speaker 3: Listen to Chris Hoseygbi.
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Speaker 9: Two school resource officers assigned here to the school who
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Speaker 9: immediately encountered the subject within just minutes of this report
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Speaker 9: going out.
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Speaker 10: Obviously, the shooter was armed and our school resource officer
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Speaker 10: engaged him.
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: Colin Gray, the dad breaks down during the trial as
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Speaker 2: he's watching video of his son stalking the school hallways
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Speaker 2: before opening five. Colin Gray the latest parent to be
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Speaker 2: prosecuted after their children accused of deadly shooting rampages.
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Speaker 4: A fourteen year old Appalachi High School student steps out
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Speaker 4: of his algebra class, returning moments later, classmates refuse to
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Speaker 4: open the door after seeing the student is now armed
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Speaker 4: with an assault style rifle.
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Speaker 3: What do we know about what happened that morning?
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Speaker 2: Yet another school shooting and now the father of the.
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Speaker 5: Shooter, Cole Gray, has also been arrested. The grandfather calling
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Speaker 5: him pure evil. The home of Cold Gray sounds chaotic?
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Speaker 2: But can we just focused on the thirteen people.
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Speaker 3: Shot by Colt Gray?
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Speaker 2: Straight back out to Chase McGee cy News room producer
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Speaker 2: GPB Chase again that more, how did it unfold?
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Speaker 12: Yeah?
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Speaker 11: So what we know from before the shooting? Over this
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Speaker 11: past week, and we've heard reporting that Marcy Gray, the
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Speaker 11: mother of CLT Gray, had received an alarming text from
15:12
Speaker 11: her son and then gone on to contact school administrators.
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Speaker 11: We know that call lasted about ten minutes according to
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Speaker 11: call records, and what was said is yet unclear, but
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Speaker 11: we do know that a school administrator responded to the
15:27
Speaker 11: classroom where cult Gray was supposed to be. There was
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Speaker 11: some confusion with another student who has a very similar
15:34
Speaker 11: name apparently, and the school administrator went to leave the
15:39
Speaker 11: classroom after not finding either student in the classroom. And
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Speaker 11: that was just moments before the shooting started.
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Speaker 2: To Sonya Turner joining us, a mom of two little
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Speaker 2: girls at the school, Sonya, did your children know either
15:52
Speaker 2: of them? Know?
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Speaker 3: Cult Gray?
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Speaker 7: No, he's not from here. He had only he had
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Speaker 7: been enrolled to my Mind College two weeks. However, he
16:02
Speaker 7: had only been in the school for maybe a total
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Speaker 7: of two days. I have a friend that saw him
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Speaker 7: the day before in the attendance office when they were
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Speaker 7: you know, interviewed, like you know, processing him as a
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Speaker 7: new student, and then that was literally his second day
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Speaker 7: maybe in our school. He's not one of our students.
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Speaker 2: So what we have heard about him. Being bullied and
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Speaker 2: call names did not happen.
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Speaker 3: At this school, Absolutely not.
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Speaker 7: I was contacted by Again, I've been here forty five years.
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Speaker 7: I know people that taught with this individual, and I
16:43
Speaker 7: refuse to say his name as a very young child,
16:47
Speaker 7: and they begged for their parents to get him help.
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Speaker 7: They begged for the system to get him help. He
16:54
Speaker 7: struggled with mental illness from as early as you can
16:57
Speaker 7: fathom of going into a school system.
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Speaker 9: Listen, there are four individuals who are deceased from this incident.
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Speaker 9: Nine that have been taken to local hospitals with various injuries.
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Speaker 9: Those that lost their life in this tragic event, Mason Shermerhorn,
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Speaker 9: aged fourteen, who is a student here at the school,
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Speaker 9: Christian Angelo who was fourteen, also a student here at
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Speaker 9: the school. Richard Aspenwall not sure of his age, but
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Speaker 9: he was a teacher here at the school. And Christina
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Speaker 9: eir Marie, I'm sorry for my pronunciation, who was also
17:42
Speaker 9: a teacher here at the school.
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Speaker 2: The victims four dead and yet another school shooting. To
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Speaker 2: Chris Hubbard, Atlanta, father with children in school right now,
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Speaker 2: how often do one of your children say, you know
18:00
Speaker 2: when you're asking them what happened today?
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Speaker 3: Who did you have lunch with and all that?
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Speaker 2: Have you heard them say, yeah, that kid is there's
18:09
Speaker 2: something off about that kid he fill in the blank
18:12
Speaker 2: or sheep fill in the blank.
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Speaker 3: I remember one.
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Speaker 2: Child all the way back to I believe it was
18:18
Speaker 2: second or third grade, was drawing pictures of hanging people
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Speaker 2: and shooting people, and alarm bells were going off in
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Speaker 2: my hit. It happens all the time.
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Speaker 3: But Chris, how.
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Speaker 2: Often do we think, oh, Okay, that troubled child is
18:32
Speaker 2: going to be a school shooter.
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Speaker 3: We got to kick him out. How often do parents
18:36
Speaker 3: actually think it's going to go this far?
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Speaker 8: Well, Nancy, unfortunately, with the way things are going, you know,
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Speaker 8: that's something that comes to mind now. But I agree
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Speaker 8: with you, that's not something you ever considered to happen
18:49
Speaker 8: at your school. Is happening way too often, and we're
18:52
Speaker 8: missing the signs. We're missing the mental health, the troubled
18:56
Speaker 8: signs that are completely obvious that are making rec threats,
19:02
Speaker 8: you know, really going out of their way to cry
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Speaker 8: for help in some other way, and we're not doing
19:07
Speaker 8: anything about it.
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Speaker 13: We're not doing enough about it.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I hear you, Chris, and I'm weighing that out.
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Speaker 5: I'm listening to what Sonya Turner has just told us
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Speaker 5: that a teacher of Cole Gray all the way back
19:20
Speaker 5: years ago was saying, this kid is troubled, but I
19:25
Speaker 5: got to balance his troubles, his inner demons, with the
19:29
Speaker 5: dead students and the dead teachers.
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Speaker 3: So how was he allowed out of class? How did
19:36
Speaker 3: that happen? Listen? Or why the school allowed this boy
19:41
Speaker 3: to come and go from the class all the time?
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Speaker 7: Peopuld go and sign up for the restroom, pass, leave
19:47
Speaker 7: the class and come back sometimes and sometimes never come back.
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Speaker 3: He has been wandering this school.
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Speaker 2: So why was he allowed out? You know, my son
19:57
Speaker 2: has gotten in trouble at school. One time it was
20:01
Speaker 2: in the fourth grade. I said, son, what did you do?
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Speaker 2: Just assuming you know something had gone horribly wrong? And
20:09
Speaker 2: went mom, I went to the library. And I know you,
20:13
Speaker 2: John David, what's wrong with going to the library? Us,
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Speaker 2: I didn't ask first, Big trouble, Big trouble, because he
20:21
Speaker 2: went to the library at the school.
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Speaker 3: So how is this kid wandering around with a gun?
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Speaker 2: To Chase Grolnick joining us out of Dallas, Texas active
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Speaker 2: shooter expert managing principle for Active Shooter Prevention Project. Chris,
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Speaker 2: wouldn't that be written in bedrock that.
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Speaker 3: Students don't wander freely in the hall?
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Speaker 14: And that's absolutely correct. And the protocols only work if
20:48
Speaker 14: we use them. And as you said at the beginning
20:50
Speaker 14: of the show, the school was notified by the mother
20:53
Speaker 14: of some type of threat. And if the administration is
20:55
Speaker 14: going to go to the room, you would think the
20:57
Speaker 14: school resource officers would too. And while I think the
21:00
Speaker 14: police did an excellent job here, I again will come
21:03
Speaker 14: back and say, for the last ten years, we cannot
21:05
Speaker 14: respond our way out of this, and they keep responding
21:08
Speaker 14: to these instead of preventing them. And we have to
21:11
Speaker 14: shift as a whole nation, just like we did for fires.
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Speaker 14: We haven't let a child die in a school fire
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Speaker 14: in seventy years. We can do this, we just want
21:20
Speaker 14: we don't want to.
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Speaker 2: Another issue that Chris Grilnik has just brought up, Chase
21:25
Speaker 2: McGee is the specter that has reared its ugly head
21:30
Speaker 2: that the mother of this childhoo has I mean, this family,
21:34
Speaker 2: the dad gives him an ar when he's got all
21:36
Speaker 2: these troubled thoughts and is expressing them, and.
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Speaker 5: The mother has wrapped sheet as long as I seventy
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Speaker 5: five for Pete's sake, and neighbors say she locks the
21:45
Speaker 5: children out of the house when she's angry. Okay, that said,
21:51
Speaker 5: Chase McGee, What can you tell me? Chase joining us
21:54
Speaker 5: from GPB, what can you tell me about the mom's
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Speaker 5: client She texted a school contacting them just before the
22:03
Speaker 5: shooting happened, before her son opens fire, shooting thirteen people,
22:08
Speaker 5: students and teachers, what does she text them?
22:11
Speaker 11: Yeah, we don't know quite yet the contents of the
22:14
Speaker 11: conversation and any requests for call records I've awarded to
22:18
Speaker 11: the Piedmont Circuit here in northeast Georgia, where the trial
22:20
Speaker 11: is going to be held. But we do have a
22:24
Speaker 11: photoproofs from a call record that a ten minute call
22:27
Speaker 11: did go out from the mother to the school system.
22:29
Speaker 5: Oh well, well, White, White Waite, White hold on, Chase,
22:33
Speaker 5: did you just say.
22:35
Speaker 3: A ten minute call?
22:38
Speaker 2: If they had acted immediately, could anyone's life have been saved?
22:43
Speaker 3: Chase?
22:45
Speaker 11: I can't speak to that, but we do know that
22:48
Speaker 11: the call took place about thirty minutes before the shooting started,
22:52
Speaker 11: and judging by the reports, that administrator made it to
22:56
Speaker 11: the classroom it sounds like some response place now. I
23:01
Speaker 11: can't speak to the idea of a lockdown or anything
23:04
Speaker 11: other than that.
23:06
Speaker 4: As shots ring out in the halls of Georgia's Appalachi
23:10
Speaker 4: High School, students and teachers take cover. As a teen
23:14
Speaker 4: shooter opens fire, a school.
23:17
Speaker 15: Administrator goes looking for Cold Gray after receiving a panicked
23:21
Speaker 15: call from mom Marcy Gray. Gray says someone needs to
23:25
Speaker 15: find and check on her son immediately, it's an extreme emergency.
23:31
Speaker 15: Minutes before that call, a school counselor informed Gray that
23:34
Speaker 15: Colt mentioned school shootings in their meeting that morning. Marcy
23:39
Speaker 15: Gray also received a text from our son, reading, I'm sorry, Mom.
23:43
Speaker 2: We are understanding that the discussion of school shootings happened
23:50
Speaker 2: that morning in a meeting. Sonia Turner, do you know
23:55
Speaker 2: anything about the meeting that morning?
23:58
Speaker 3: We're school shooting were discussed.
24:01
Speaker 7: I don't know specifics of what was discussed, but I
24:04
Speaker 7: do know they in took him the day before. I
24:07
Speaker 7: think it was.
24:08
Speaker 3: They in took him. What does that mean just because
24:11
Speaker 3: he was a new student.
24:12
Speaker 7: I think they met with him to sit down to
24:14
Speaker 7: determine what his needs were. Our counseling staff is excellent
24:21
Speaker 7: with trying to make sure all of our children's needs
24:23
Speaker 7: are met.
24:24
Speaker 2: Joining us now Crime online dot Com investigative reporter Sidney Sumner. Sidney,
24:28
Speaker 2: let me understand something Sidney did. Was there a meeting
24:34
Speaker 2: that morning with a school counselor, And in that meeting
24:38
Speaker 2: the morning of the shooting, thirteen shot, fourth dead, Colt
24:45
Speaker 2: Gray mentioned a school shooting.
24:49
Speaker 12: That's what I'm understanding. And yes, there was some sort
24:52
Speaker 12: of meeting with the school counselor that morning where Colt
24:56
Speaker 12: mentioned school shooting. And it's unclear exactly when Marcy Gray
25:01
Speaker 12: was informed of this. It seems like the school counselor
25:04
Speaker 12: informed Marcy Gray of this during that ten minute call
25:07
Speaker 12: at nine to fifty am from reports say she learned
25:10
Speaker 12: this before. We're not exactly sure what led to Marcy
25:14
Speaker 12: Gray's call to the school that morning.
25:16
Speaker 5: Hold On said, said the school shooter, Colt Gray contacted
25:23
Speaker 5: his mother and said something that was so disturbing she.
25:28
Speaker 2: Called the school and had a ten minute conversation with
25:31
Speaker 2: them before they went out with the warning. So a
25:36
Speaker 2: lot of time lost.
25:38
Speaker 3: You know.
25:39
Speaker 2: Brian Claypool is joining us for now criminal defense attorney
25:42
Speaker 2: and specifically lived through the Mandalay mass.
25:49
Speaker 3: Shooting and lived to tell the tale.
25:52
Speaker 2: Brian Claypool, I mean, what more will it take?
25:57
Speaker 3: For Pete's sake?
25:59
Speaker 2: Did you hear Hubbard a few moments ago? Every time
26:02
Speaker 2: you send your school child of school, you're wondering what's
26:06
Speaker 2: going to happen today. When your child at the supper
26:08
Speaker 2: table says, God, that kid's really off, there's something wrong,
26:12
Speaker 2: you wonder is that going to be a school shooter?
26:15
Speaker 2: I mean that morning, Claypool, this shooter is talking about
26:20
Speaker 2: school shootings.
26:22
Speaker 3: You heard Sonya Turner, who is living through this.
26:26
Speaker 2: Her children were in the school, and it goes way
26:31
Speaker 2: back to when he was in elementary school.
26:34
Speaker 3: I mean, what more has to be done? Claypool?
26:37
Speaker 13: First of all, I want to share with Sonya that
26:40
Speaker 13: this is horrific. But in time, being a survivor of
26:45
Speaker 13: a mass shooting myself, She's going to realize, and her
26:48
Speaker 13: daughter's going to realize that there's a bigger cause for
26:51
Speaker 13: her daughter surviving and her family going through this. And
26:55
Speaker 13: part of that cause is going to be what I've
26:57
Speaker 13: tried to do the last five or six years, is
27:00
Speaker 13: is to make change throughout our country to try to
27:03
Speaker 13: safeguard not only schools, but all public places that we
27:05
Speaker 13: go to, and how do we do that, you know, Nancy,
27:09
Speaker 13: shortly after the Vegas shooting, when I thought I was
27:12
Speaker 13: going to die and I saw other people on the
27:14
Speaker 13: ground shot and dealt with, you know, remorse for not
27:17
Speaker 13: helping them, and similar to what Sonya went through too,
27:21
Speaker 13: I sent a text to my daughters. I'm a single parent.
27:24
Speaker 13: I've got two daughters now, but my teen daughter at
27:26
Speaker 13: the time it was two lix terr. So I texted
27:30
Speaker 13: her mom and I just said, you know, if I
27:32
Speaker 13: get killed, you know, you know, send my love to Alana,
27:38
Speaker 13: my daughter. But the thing is that nobody should have
27:42
Speaker 13: to go through that, and the way that we make
27:44
Speaker 13: change is not through What I was trying to get
27:46
Speaker 13: at before I got emotional, was I thought that this
27:50
Speaker 13: they're a ban on, you know, assault weapons with help
27:53
Speaker 13: the first year or two. And I've changed my thought
27:56
Speaker 13: because of what we're seeing in this shooting too, that
27:59
Speaker 13: in nearly every every school shooting and nearly every mass shooting, Nancy,
28:03
Speaker 13: there are red flags. There are massive red flags here
28:09
Speaker 13: and until local schools, it's not just a federal issue.
28:13
Speaker 13: Everybody's quick to blame the federal government. What are we
28:15
Speaker 13: doing to solve these This is a local issue too.
28:19
Speaker 3: A lot could have been done here.
28:21
Speaker 2: Well, well, you know what, Claypool, You're right, the FBI
28:25
Speaker 2: had been.
28:25
Speaker 3: Watching Colt Gray.
28:28
Speaker 2: They contacted, as you are prescribing, local authorities.
28:34
Speaker 3: Who did an interview and nothing was done. Doctor Jillian
28:38
Speaker 3: Peterson joining me.
28:39
Speaker 2: Forensic psychologists and the executive director of the Violence Prevention Project,
28:45
Speaker 2: author of the Violence Project, How to Stop a mass
28:48
Speaker 2: shooting Epidemic. Okay, Doctor Jillian Peterson, lay it on me.
28:53
Speaker 16: Yeah, I mean it's so heartbreaking and difficult to hear
28:57
Speaker 16: the story because we've studied these schools shootings and it's
29:00
Speaker 16: the same thing over and over again. It's a troubled
29:04
Speaker 16: young man who's a student of the school. He's making threats,
29:08
Speaker 16: he's posting things online, he's telling people things that are
29:12
Speaker 16: going to happen. The people are around him are concerned,
29:15
Speaker 16: and still every warning sign gets missed when this happens.
29:19
Speaker 5: So, doctor Jillian Peterson, they had a meeting with the
29:21
Speaker 5: counselor that morning and he's talking about school shootings.
29:24
Speaker 3: Sonya Turner says.
29:26
Speaker 2: She knows an instruct her that dealt with Colt Gray
29:30
Speaker 2: years ago.
29:32
Speaker 3: Same thing.
29:32
Speaker 5: Then he's like uh Vesuvius waiting to erupt. Yet nothing happened.
29:40
Speaker 5: The parents aren't going to do anything. What they did
29:42
Speaker 5: is given an ar an ar an assault rifle, So
29:46
Speaker 5: that's not helpful.
29:47
Speaker 2: The only thing I believe that saved lives at all,
29:51
Speaker 2: and I think Sonya turns backing me up on this
29:54
Speaker 2: is a school administrator and one of the students.
29:57
Speaker 3: Listen.
29:58
Speaker 15: A school administrator goes looking for Cold Gray after receiving
30:01
Speaker 15: a panicked call from mom Marcy Gray. Gray says someone
30:06
Speaker 15: needs to find and check on her son immediately, it's
30:09
Speaker 15: an extreme emergency. Minutes before that call, a school counselor
30:14
Speaker 15: informed Gray that cult mentioned school shootings in their meeting
30:18
Speaker 15: that morning. Marcy Gray also received a text from our son, reading,
30:23
Speaker 15: I'm sorry Mom.
30:24
Speaker 17: The assault rifle gifted to Gray at Christmas last year
30:27
Speaker 17: is reportedly the same gun used in the attack on
30:29
Speaker 17: Appalachi High School. Many are questioning how the fourteen year
30:32
Speaker 17: old managed to get the large gun into the school.
30:34
Speaker 17: Appalachi does not have metal detectors, but the school does
30:37
Speaker 17: not provide lockers to every student. While an AR fifteen
30:41
Speaker 17: will break down into two pieces, they are still too large.
30:44
Speaker 17: To conceal in a typical school backpack.
30:46
Speaker 2: So how did he get the gun into the school?
30:49
Speaker 2: How did he transport it? How did he get out
30:51
Speaker 2: in the hall with it? Did he stash it somewhere
30:54
Speaker 2: he was out?
30:55
Speaker 5: According to Sonya Turner, his children go to the school
30:59
Speaker 5: with a legitimate bathroom pass, so he was not wandering
31:03
Speaker 5: the halls as.
31:05
Speaker 3: Has been characterized to us.
31:07
Speaker 2: That's not what happened. He had a bathroom pass, So
31:10
Speaker 2: how did he get the gun? Joining us an all
31:15
Speaker 2: star panel to make sense of what we know right
31:17
Speaker 2: now to mary Lynn Ryan joining us VP at GPB
31:22
Speaker 2: Mary Lynn in the last hours the father Colt Gray's father,
31:28
Speaker 2: which is quite a departure in American jurisprudence. It has
31:32
Speaker 2: happened before, but very rarely the father has been put
31:36
Speaker 2: behind bars.
31:37
Speaker 3: Why that is a good question, Nancy.
31:38
Speaker 18: We asked that right away, because there's only been one
31:41
Speaker 18: other case in Michigan where a parent was held liable
31:44
Speaker 18: for that for a gun used by a student. But
31:47
Speaker 18: I talked to law enforcement at the federal level after this,
31:51
Speaker 18: and I was told that it was because the father
31:54
Speaker 18: had knowledge of his mental health and still provided him
31:58
Speaker 18: with a possessing a web and and knew that he
32:01
Speaker 18: was in that state and those were available to him.
32:04
Speaker 18: So that that you're a lawyer, very good lawyer, Nancy,
32:07
Speaker 18: and I know you've done many stories on this, and
32:09
Speaker 18: that I believe is the reason why they're able to
32:13
Speaker 18: charge the father with accessory pretty much to this crime.
32:16
Speaker 18: So it will be a top story here in Georgia.
32:19
Speaker 13: And the gun.
32:20
Speaker 18: The gun debate rages on again as we head into
32:23
Speaker 18: this election, and it's at the top of mine today.
32:27
Speaker 2: Well, I don't want to make this at all about
32:30
Speaker 2: politics at all.
32:32
Speaker 3: I want to save lives.
32:33
Speaker 2: I don't care who's going to use this as some
32:37
Speaker 2: rhetoric right for an election to further their own Answest
32:40
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, you're right, you are right, Maryland.
32:45
Speaker 8: Listen, if something like that happened for years, something like
32:47
Speaker 8: that rewarded.
32:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, I told him from I will never say something.
32:53
Speaker 8: So you haven't used this for in a few months,
32:55
Speaker 8: and you're you're saying you didn't say an tell.
32:58
Speaker 6: I don't know.
32:58
Speaker 3: All that I have is take.
33:00
Speaker 14: But I just go around there and watching the hills.
33:02
Speaker 19: Do you have whipping in the house I did?
33:04
Speaker 2: Are they accessible to him?
33:06
Speaker 6: They are?
33:07
Speaker 7: I mean there's nothing loaded, but they are down. Okay.
33:11
Speaker 18: We actually we do a lot of shooting.
33:13
Speaker 7: We do a lot of deer hump and he shot
33:14
Speaker 7: his first deer this year, you know, So.
33:19
Speaker 14: Like I'm pretty much in.
33:20
Speaker 9: Shop to be honest with you, Well, I'm a little
33:23
Speaker 9: pissed off to be even really honest with you.
33:26
Speaker 3: If that is what was said.
33:28
Speaker 2: He's pissed off, the father is pissed off. Well, this
33:31
Speaker 2: may help you understand it a little bit more. Earlier
33:34
Speaker 2: we heard.
33:34
Speaker 3: Brian Claypool talking about lots of red flags.
33:38
Speaker 2: That interview was back in May twenty twenty three, when
33:43
Speaker 2: the Jackson County Deputy sheriff went out to speak to
33:47
Speaker 2: Colt Gray's father and he's pissed.
33:51
Speaker 3: The father's pissed about.
33:52
Speaker 2: What And yes, the guns were easily accessible. To Sidney Sumner,
33:59
Speaker 2: joining us climb online dot com investigative reporter, it's my
34:02
Speaker 2: understanding that it's a lot more than just accessory to
34:05
Speaker 2: the crime that the father, Colin Gray, is facing four
34:11
Speaker 2: counts of manslaughter and two counts of second degree murder.
34:17
Speaker 2: Me claims he gave his son an a R fifteen
34:20
Speaker 2: style rifle that was then used in the massacre.
34:24
Speaker 3: At APPALACHIAI Ancy.
34:25
Speaker 19: That's absolutely correct. What we know is that Colin Griff
34:29
Speaker 19: gifted Cult this assault rifle, reportedly for deer hunting. It
34:34
Speaker 19: seems like they were out hunting very frequently. Colin Gray
34:37
Speaker 19: talks to the sheriff's deputies about trying to get Colt outside,
34:43
Speaker 19: trying to get in the hobby.
34:44
Speaker 20: Was this the best hobby for Cult to be in.
34:47
Speaker 20: Obviously not. So that's what we know about that, And
34:50
Speaker 20: it's obvious these text messages that are coming out between
34:54
Speaker 20: Marcy Gray, her sisters, her mother, and father. The family
34:59
Speaker 20: was very that Colt Gray was not doing well mentally.
35:04
Speaker 20: He had just been put into therapy a week before
35:07
Speaker 20: this shooting happened.
35:08
Speaker 2: But you know what's interesting, Sidney Sumner Sonya Turner has
35:12
Speaker 2: pointed out that his file about all of his difficulties
35:18
Speaker 2: and all of his demons and homicidal suicidal ideation did
35:24
Speaker 2: not travel with him. Everyone is attacking Appalachi High. Appalachi
35:28
Speaker 2: High did not know about his trouble background. But as
35:34
Speaker 2: Sidney Sumner is telling us, we now know that law
35:39
Speaker 2: enforcement went to speak to the father and I guess
35:43
Speaker 2: you heard what she was saying about the home listen.
35:47
Speaker 17: Colt Gray's home life is anything but stable. Colt's mother,
35:50
Speaker 17: Marcy Gray, has a long criminal history after falling into
35:52
Speaker 17: drug addiction. Colin and Marcy Gray separate shortly after being
35:56
Speaker 17: evicted from a rental home. Colt stays with his father
35:59
Speaker 17: while his two younger siblings go with their mom. After
36:02
Speaker 17: cops find drugs in her car. Marcy Gray has sent
36:05
Speaker 17: us to five years in prison, but serves only forty
36:07
Speaker 17: six days before release on parole. Months later, Gray is
36:10
Speaker 17: arrested for aggravated battery on her seventy three year old mother.
36:19
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Gray.
36:25
Speaker 3: At trial.
36:26
Speaker 2: The dad, Colin Gray, took the stand after prosecutors rested
36:30
Speaker 2: their case, telling the court he gifted Colt the rifle
36:34
Speaker 2: for Christmas, hoping it would bring them closer together through
36:37
Speaker 2: hunting trips and trips to the gun range. But prosecutors
36:41
Speaker 2: say the dad's decision was despite warning signs about Colt
36:45
Speaker 2: Gray's behavior and mental health. I believe the nil in
36:49
Speaker 2: the coffin was that over a year before the deadly
36:52
Speaker 2: shooting rampage, police interviewed Colt and Colin Gray about a
36:58
Speaker 2: threat he made to carry out a school shooting. It
37:01
Speaker 2: was made on a discord account created with an email
37:05
Speaker 2: attached to the teen, So a year before the shooting,
37:08
Speaker 2: the dad knows he's made a threat to shoot up
37:11
Speaker 2: the school, but he still held on to an AAR fifteen.
37:17
Speaker 2: What more do we know? Sonya Turner, who is the
37:21
Speaker 2: mom of two little girls that attend Appalachi High. Sonya,
37:27
Speaker 2: you're getting all sorts of information.
37:30
Speaker 3: What have you learned about Gray's father?
37:34
Speaker 7: I got very reliable information that he was acting very
37:39
Speaker 7: peculiar that morning at work and was communicating back and
37:43
Speaker 7: forth supposedly with his son. And I wholeheartedly feel like
37:50
Speaker 7: he may have known more than something was up, that
37:52
Speaker 7: he may have known what was up.
37:53
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know.
37:54
Speaker 2: It just makes me wonder. Did he not want to
37:57
Speaker 2: give up his son? Did he try to talk his
37:59
Speaker 2: son out of that? Was he trying to calm his
38:01
Speaker 2: son down at the expense of the other students? To
38:07
Speaker 2: Chris Grolnik, active shooter expert, what is the fix?
38:13
Speaker 3: What can we do?
38:15
Speaker 2: The FBI had flagged it, local law enforcement went to
38:18
Speaker 2: go speak to his family.
38:21
Speaker 3: That did no good.
38:23
Speaker 2: The new school, Appalachi High, as Sony Turner has pointed out,
38:27
Speaker 2: did not have access to any of Cole Gray's history.
38:31
Speaker 2: They let a ticking time bomb walk into their school
38:35
Speaker 2: unbeknownst to.
38:36
Speaker 14: Them, and you know, Natsi and so many others. Ninety
38:39
Speaker 14: percent of these shooters court in the FBI tell somebody
38:41
Speaker 14: they're going to do it before they do it, and
38:43
Speaker 14: they provide something called leakage, which is on social media
38:46
Speaker 14: that remains up at will until it's posted, flagged or other,
38:50
Speaker 14: and then may come down later. If we just follow
38:52
Speaker 14: their history, listen to the people around, and when somebody
38:55
Speaker 14: says they're going to do something and we start believing them,
38:58
Speaker 14: then we can reduce these incidents. As great as this
39:01
Speaker 14: response was, we've still lost the lives of four people,
39:04
Speaker 14: nine other shot and a whole host of a community
39:07
Speaker 14: that's going to be in shambles for god knows how
39:10
Speaker 14: long over twenty five years. The watershed moment was Columbine.
39:15
Speaker 14: Of course, Uvaldi was absolutely the incorrect way to handle this.
39:19
Speaker 2: You know, Chris Hubbard, Atlanta area father of children, that
39:23
Speaker 2: he's got to stand right back into school tomorrow morning.
39:27
Speaker 2: Chris Hubbard, one of the first stints I did at
39:30
Speaker 2: the Fulton County District Attorney's office was in juvenile and
39:35
Speaker 2: of course it's more of a revolving door there than
39:39
Speaker 2: it is in adult jail. But I would see the
39:43
Speaker 2: level of crime committed by juveniles and then walk right
39:47
Speaker 2: out the door, and I knew nothing could be done
39:52
Speaker 2: except for me trying to get treated as adults. So
39:56
Speaker 2: that in mind, Chris, what do you your children hide
40:01
Speaker 2: under your desk?
40:02
Speaker 3: I mean, what do you tell them? That's an impossible conversation, Nancy.
40:07
Speaker 8: We talk about recognizing signs, we talk about being nice
40:12
Speaker 8: to people. I know that sounds silly maybe in this context,
40:16
Speaker 8: but you know a lot of these.
40:18
Speaker 3: Kids you here were bullied.
40:19
Speaker 8: And again, I know this didn't happen to APPLEATCHI high
40:21
Speaker 8: because it was only his second day apparently, but had
40:23
Speaker 8: lived through that his entire life. But when something like
40:26
Speaker 8: that happens, all you can do is tell your kids
40:28
Speaker 8: to look out for themselves the best they can. I
40:31
Speaker 8: wish we had more physical barriers at the schools, lockdown doors,
40:35
Speaker 8: et cetera, the resource officers. I'm a huge proponent of
40:38
Speaker 8: having sat on three school boards, two current and one
40:41
Speaker 8: in the past. School safety is something that we've talked
40:43
Speaker 8: about a lot, and I'm a huge proponent of the
40:46
Speaker 8: school resource officers. But again that's a reaction thing. And
40:49
Speaker 8: again we're not missing these signs. I don't believe we're
40:53
Speaker 8: ignoring these signs of this mental health. And again I
40:56
Speaker 8: don't know what you do. And Nancy, you've lived this
40:58
Speaker 8: in your legal career where you've had juveniles walk out
41:00
Speaker 8: the door and you knew something was going to happen.
41:02
Speaker 8: I don't know what the legal fix is. That's certainly
41:04
Speaker 8: not my area of expertise.
41:05
Speaker 2: Well, Chris, you point out something really valuable. And to
41:09
Speaker 2: Sonya Turner, following what Chris Hubbard has just said, the
41:13
Speaker 2: reaction by the school, And I want to defend the
41:16
Speaker 2: school along with you, now that I understand what you're saying.
41:21
Speaker 2: The school reacted and they reacted appropriately. So it's not
41:25
Speaker 2: the reaction what Hubbard just.
41:26
Speaker 5: Said, it's before that is before the school has to react.
41:31
Speaker 2: How did he get the gun in there? Where did
41:33
Speaker 2: he get the gun? How did he know how to
41:34
Speaker 2: break down the gun? What kind of doors did the
41:37
Speaker 2: school have? Do they have metal detectors? Why didn't his
41:40
Speaker 2: file follow him to Apalachi High? I mean it's like
41:44
Speaker 2: Appalachi's bringing a knife to a gunfight. They have no
41:47
Speaker 2: idea what they're dealing with. But let me ask you this,
41:51
Speaker 2: Sonya Turner. I know as a victim of violent crime
41:56
Speaker 2: and having dealt with crime victims my whole life. Now
42:01
Speaker 2: you're never the same after. How are your girls and
42:07
Speaker 2: how is this affecting them?
42:09
Speaker 7: I want to share something about one of the victims
42:12
Speaker 7: as quickly as I can. They said at our visual
42:15
Speaker 7: last night, Wei, which was absolutely amazing. Mason, the young
42:20
Speaker 7: man that was killed. One of his favorite video games
42:23
Speaker 7: was Kingdom of Hearts and I'd never heard of it.
42:26
Speaker 7: But what they talked about is the whole premise of
42:28
Speaker 7: that video game was it's a story of light overcoming
42:32
Speaker 7: the darkness and the ultimate sacrifice did that child make?
42:38
Speaker 7: But last night at that vigil, all we saw was light.
42:42
Speaker 7: But love will prevail in the situation. It's just I
42:46
Speaker 7: hate that those families lost their loved ones.
42:49
Speaker 18: That day.
42:50
Speaker 2: A dad goes down for the sins of his son.
42:54
Speaker 2: We wait as the sun goes on trial to be
42:58
Speaker 2: tried as an adult. Nancy Grace signing off, goodbye friend,
43:10
Speaker 2: Hm