BARROW COUNTY, Ga. (TCN) — A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced to life in prison for carrying out a mass shooting at his high school in 2024, killing four people and injuring nine more.
On Sept. 4, 2024, Colt Gray, who was 14 years old at the time, opened fire with an AR-15 rifle at Apalachee High School, which he attended. Two students and two teachers were fatally shot, and nine more people were injured, according to ABC News.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Gray was booked into jail on Sept. 5, 2024, and made his first court appearance the following day.
In addition, his father, 55-year-old Colin Gray, was arrested and charged. Per the GBI, he knowingly allowed his son to possess a gun. Investigators say he gave the teen the AR-15 used in the shooting as a Christmas present.
ABC News reports Colin Gray was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children. He was convicted of 27 counts, including murder, in March. According to ABC News, he became the first parent in United States history to be convicted of murder due to the acts of their child.
On July 24, Colt Gray pleaded guilty to the 55 counts against him in a non-negotiated guilty plea, per ABC News.
In court, an investigator testified that Colt Gray had a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland High School mass shooter. Prosecutors said Colt Gray committed the mass shooting because he wanted “eternal fame” in the true crime community.
Before handing down a sentence of life in prison on July 28, Judge Nicholas Primm said, “You wrote, ‘I want to make history. I want people to remember the pain I caused,’ and there you succeeded. … The pain that you visited upon this community is unlikely to disappear in my lifetime,” ABC reports.
He continued, “You do not seem to be tormented by what you did. You seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize, you aren’t wracked with guilt. You’re proud of yourself. … The slain will not return to life, the injured will not forget their wounds, and a 16-year-old — a 16-year-old boy — will live and die in prison.”
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