Apalachee school shooting: Colt Gray hid gun in his backpack, sheriff says

BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — It has been one week since Barrow County was rocked by a school shooting at Apalachee High School.

Police arrested 14-year-old Colt Gray for the crime, who was on the FBI’s radar after allegedly making school shooting threats last year.

On Wednesday, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith gave an update on the latest with the investigation.

According to Smith, Gray brought a rifle into the school inside his backpack.

“He brought it on his own. It wasn’t hidden in the school, it wasn’t given to him by someone else,” Smith said.

The sheriff said the assault-style rife could not be broken down, but that Gray obscured it so it would not be seen easily by his classmates and teachers.

“It would have stuck out, but he had some things that made it concealed,” Smith said.

Gray allegedly had the gun on him throughout the morning and asked a teacher if he could go to the front office.

“...Which was not uncommon. He asked to go up front and speak to someone at the front, and when you do that you take your belongings with you,” Smith said, “so the teacher allowed him to leave.”

The sheriff said Gray then went to the restroom.

“Colt had gone to the bathroom, brought the firearm out, and began shooting at students and staff,” Smith said.

The sheriff said school resource officers were able to take Gray into custody a little more than a minute after the first shots were fired, and the quick response time may have saved lives.

THE WARNING CALL

Gray’s mom reported that she called the high school asking for someone to check on her son after getting concerning text messages from him.

“The counselor said that one of Colt’s teachers had sent me an email that he had been making references to school shootings,” Marcee Gray said.

Sources say that a teacher noticed Gray was acting weird and emailed a counselor shortly before his mom called the school.

“Between my gut feeling and text messages,” she said, “[I was like] y’all need to go like run to the classroom.”

Administrators instead found a student named Colton Gray, but was unrelated to Colt Gray.

“They were in the same classroom, and they sat beside each other,” Smith said.

The sheriff said that by getting Gray in custody within two minutes of the first shot, they were able to get medical care that may have saved the lives of four people, limiting the death toll.