Father of Georgia shooting suspect Colt Gray charged with second-degree murder

Ricky Aspinwall went by many titles — football coach, math teacher, father, husband, father — and after the Apalachee High School shooting, he was tragically given another: victim.

“[This shooting] makes every educator in the country more anxious because schools are supposed to be a safe place,” his best friend and fellow educator Nick Bach told The Independent.

The shooting has prompted scrutiny of Georgia’s gun laws.

In May of 2023, the FBI got a tip about online threats on the app Discord regarding a school shooting. It traced the threats to Georgia and forwarded information to the Jackson County Sheriffs’ Office, which interviewed the Gray family.

Colin Gray, the Georgia shooting suspect’s father, said he kept hunting guns in the house, but that Colt did not have unsupervised access to them. Colt, meanwhile, denied making the online threats.

“Colt expressed concern that someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” according to a police report obtained by The Independent.

Gray also told deputies that “he stopped using Discord because too many people kept hacking his account and he was afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes.”

During the interview with the Grays, a deputy openly mused about the stakes of the 2023 investigation, saying, “God forbid” if the online threats turned into an actual shooting, according to audio of the interview obtained by CNN.

Further investigation of Colt’s Discord page showed he made the account after he said he’d deleted it, and used a Russian username that “spells out the name Lanza, referring to Adam Lanza, who is the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter in Newton, Conn.,” per the report.

Police notified local schools and no probable cause for an arrest was found at the time, according to the FBI.

Read Rhian Lubin’s story for more information.

As police continue to investigate yesterday’s mass shooting at a Georgia high school, a family member of Colt Gray is providing new insights into the 14-year-old’s home life.

Annie Polhamus Brown spoke with The Independent about her older sister Marcee Polhamus Gray and Marcee’s estranged husband Colin Gray.

Learn more in Justin Rohrlich’s full story.

Colt Gray, the 14-year-old suspected gunman who killed four people at Apalachee High School, has been charged with four counts of felony murder, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Additional charges are expected. His first court appearance will be tomorrow morning.

Authorities will perform autopsies on the four victims later today as investigators look into the shooter’s motive.

More details are emerging about the circumstances that allegedly led to yesterday’s school shooting in Georgia.

Colin Gray, 54, the father of alleged gunman Colt Gray, 14, reportedly purchased his son a high-powered AR 15-style rifle as a holiday gift in 2023 that was later allegedly used in the Georgia shooting, which killed four people and hospitalized nine others.

The purchase came months after local police interviewed the Grays, after the FBI received tips about online warnings to commit a school shooting that could be traced to a social media account belonging to Colt. The student denied making the threats and no arrests were made at the time.

Colin and Colt Gray are now both facing charges over the shooting.

Charges were brought against Colt Gray’s father for “knowingly allowing” the teenage shooting suspect to have a gun, Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told reporters on Thursday night.

Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.