WINDER, Ga. — About half an hour before Colt Gray allegedly opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, last week, his mother supposedly alerted a school counselor about an “extreme emergency” involving her son.
The Washington Post reported that there was a 10-minute call from Marcee Gray, Colt Gray’s mother, to the school starting at 9:50 a.m. on Wednesday. After the shooting was done, she texted her sister, writing, “I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school. I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”
After the call was complete, Marcee Gray and her mother started driving 200 miles from Fitzgerald, Georgia to Winder, Marcy Gray’s father said, according to CNN.
Marcee Gray’s sister, Annie Brown, told the newspaper that the counselor told her sister that Colt Gray had talked about a school shooting that morning.
Near the same time, a school administrator visited the 14-year-old’s classroom according to a student who said there was confusion over Colt Gray and another student with a similar name. Neither Colt Gray or the other student were in the classroom at the time and the administrator took the other student’s backpack.
The shots were fired a few minutes later.
Four people were killed — two students and two teachers — with an AR-15-style rifle bought by Colt Gray’s father for his son in December, officials said. Nine others were injured.
There were other texts between the school and family members that there were concerns about Colt Gray’s mental health. About a week before the shooting Brown told a relative that her nephew was having “homicidal and suicidal thoughts,” the Post reported.
Marcee Gray also contacted the Post to confirm the texts and phone logs but didn’t go into detail as to why she had alerted the school. She said that information was shared with law enforcement.
She told the newspaper via text, “I am so, so sorry and can not fathom the pain and suffering they are going through right now.”
Marcee Gray also spoke with ABC News, telling reporters there, “If I could take their place, I would. I would in a heartbeat.”
But Colt Gray’s grandfather told CNN that his grandson had texted Marcee Gray the morning of the shooting to apologize. The message the teen sent was described by CNN as “an alarming, cryptic text” that led Marcee Gray to call the school.
Charles Polhamus, Marcee Gray’s father, was next to his daughter when she got the message that read “I’m sorry, mom.”
Colt Gray was charged last week with four counts of murder and will be tried as an adult. He will likely face other charges.
His father, Colin Gray, is also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, CNN reported.
Neither Colt Gray nor Colin Gray have entered a plea. They are both scheduled for court on Dec. 4, ABC News reported.
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