Staff searched for wrong student after frantic call from mother of alleged Georgia school shooter Colt Gray: report
Staff at Apalachee High School searched for the wrong student when warned Colt Gray could be planning a school shooting — instead frantically searching for a classmate with an almost identical name.
The hunt started after 9 a.m. last Wednesday when Colt Gray’s mom called the Georgia high school to warn that she’d received an alarming message from her troubled 14-year-old son.
Colt was already out of the room, allegedly loading the rifle he’d smuggled into school that day — but staff mistakenly raced to find his near-identically named classmate, who was also out of the room, officials told WSB-TV.
The innocent student was identified by WSB-TV as Colton Gray, although online posts show a Kolton Gray at the school, while the Georgia Bureau of Investigations previously said a Kolten Gray was mistakenly being identified as the shooter.
“They were in the same classroom, and they sat beside each other,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said of the similarly named students, both 14.
Both students were gone when a school official went through the unconnected kid’s backpack, student Lyela Sayarath also told the Washington Post of the confusing moments before the shooting unfolded.
Still, armed administrators were able to confront the shooter just one minute and six seconds after he opened fire, killing two students and two teachers, the sheriff said.
Just before the search, Colt Gray had asked to leave the room so he could go to the front office, Smith said.
“He asked to go up front and speak to someone at the front, and when you do that you take your belongings with you,” the sheriff explained.
Colt Gray was excused – even though a teacher had emailed a counselor to report that he was acting strangely shortly before his mom phoned the school, WSB-TV said.
When the freshman got up from the room, the school still had no idea that he had an AR-style rifle stashed in his backpack.
“He brought it on his own,” Smith told WSB-TV. “It wasn’t hidden in the school, it wasn’t given to him by someone else.”
The rifle could not be broken down, but Gray had obscured the firearm enough that it could not be easily spotted by his teachers or peers, the sheriff added.
By the time the staff had searched the other boy’s backpack, “Colt had gone to the bathroom, brought the firearm out, and began shooting at students and staff,” Smith explained.
Despite the error, the close proximity of school staff and resource officers to the scene of the shooting also meant that they could get urgent medical care to the victims, he said.
The tragic Georgia high school shooting: Here’s what’s known so far
- High school shooting suspect warned he will face life in prison as dad sobs uncontrollably as they face judge after bloody school assault
- Dad of alleged Ga. school shooter Colt Gray arrested, hit with murder and manslaughter charges: officials
- Accused Ga. school shooter Colt Gray, 14, received gun used in massacre as Christmas gift from dad — months after online threats probe: sources
- Who are the four victims of the Apalachee High School shooting?
- Georgia school shooting suspect’s father called 2023 visit by police over online threats ‘bull—-‘: audio
Gray was arrested and charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder.
The gun used in the deadly shooting was given to the alleged gunman by his father, Colin Gray, who supposedly believed the weapon would help “toughen him up.”
Colin Gray, 54, was also arrested and charged in connection with the shooting, including four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children in the second degree.
“He’s evil,” Charles Polhamus, the alleged gunman’s maternal grandfather, told The Post of Colin Gray over the weekend.
“Spending 11 years with that son of a bitch screaming and hollering every day — it can affect anybody.”
