Georgia school shooting: Accused 14-year-old gunman Colt Gray pictured for first time

Colt Gray previously known to FBI

Gray, who was charged with multiple counts of murder and will be prosecuted as an adult, was reportedly obsessed with mass shootings according to authorities who discovered clues while searching the boy’s home.

Gray was reportedly known to the FBI after officers from Jackson County visited the teen in 2023, questioning him and his father about a channel on social media platform Discord channel linked to the then 13-year-old which allegedly made threats about a school shooting.

The account had threatened to “shoot up a school”, according to investigative reports obtained by USA Today.

The threats, which also contained images of guns, were forwarded to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a Daily Mail report, officers said the Discord account had a username written in Russian, and the translation of the letters spelled out the name Lanza, referencing Adam Lanza, the man who killed 26 people in the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy.

Gray reportedly denied the account and messages were his.

According to the New York Times, Gray’s father Colin told investigators his son knew about the “seriousness of weapons and what they can do”, as well as “how to use them and not use them”.

“At the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels,” the FBI said in a statement.

In an interview with investigators in 2023, Colin revealed his son “had some problems” at a previous school he attended, but that the situation had “gotten a lot better” since attending a new school.

Inside the school shooting horror

While it is not yet known how Gray obtained the weapon, authorities revealed it was the 14-year-old’s first “real day” at Apalachee High School.

According to authorities he opened fire at 10.23am, and hit at least 13 people as horror and panic radiated throughout the school.

Lyela Sayerath, a classmate of Gray told CNN she was sat next to the 14-year-old in algebra class just minutes before he began shooting.

She described Gray leaving the classroom around 9.45am, less than 30 minutes before the active shooter alert system sounded.

The student thought Gray was skipping class as he didn’t take a bathroom pass. According to Sayerath, Gray returned outside the classroom where someone opened the door to let him in.

That’s when Gray allegedly started shooting.

“I guess he saw we weren’t going to let him in. And I guess the classroom next to me, their door was open, so I think he just started shooting in the classroom,” she said.

Sayerath alleged that Gray fired a number of bullets “one after another”.

“When we heard it, most people just dropped to the floor and like kind of crawled in an area like piled on top of each other.”

Local TV stations broadcast images of parents lining up in cars on a road outside the school, hoping to be reunited with their children.

The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting “and his administration will continue co-ordinating with federal, state, and local officials as we receive more information”.

“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” Biden said in a statement, calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to pass “common-sense gun safety legislation”.

The shooting was the first “planned attack” at a school this autumn, said David Riedman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database. Apalachee students returned to school in August; many other students in the US are returning this week.