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Merry Christmas, Colt Gray’s father said, handing over an AR-15 rifle.
Months later, the 14-year-old is suspected of having used it to murder students and teachers at his school.
Now father Colin Gray risks 180 years in prison.
On Friday, the 14-year-old boy was arraigned in Georgia.
Judge Currie Mingledorff opened by announcing that he risks the death penalty, but then corrected himself as the suspect is under 18.
Instead, it is leaning towards a life sentence if he is convicted.
How Colt Gray got hold of the AR-15 rifle used in Wednesday’s school shooting that killed four people has been one of the main concerns of investigators.
Now an explanation seems to have been found. According to CNN’s data Colt Gray got the gun as a Christmas present last year when he was 13 years old.
At the time, he had already been investigated by the FBI on suspicion of having written threats on the internet that he would carry out a school shooting. The investigation was then dropped due to lack of evidence.
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fullscreenColin Gray and Colt Gray both face long prison terms after the school shooting. Photo: AP
“Bought the damn rifle as a Christmas present”
On Friday, father Colin Gray was charged with giving the boy the gun as a gift “knowing he was a threat to himself and others”.
He is suspected, among other things, of four cases of murder and risks 180 years in prison.
The information that the boy received the weapon as a Christmas present has caused fury in the United States.
One who has reacted strongly is Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed in a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Florida in 2018.
“Daddy BOUGHT THAT damn rifle as a Christmas present AFTER THE VISIT FROM THE FBI!!!”, he writes on X and continues:
“I hope they find a way to hold the father accountable. He should rot in jail. My fight to reduce gun violence continues because I truly believe that we can and must do more to stop these instances of gun violence and that we can do it in a way that is not an affront to gun owners or 2Ainfoclose2ADet the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms..”
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full screen The flag at half-mast after the shooting. Photo: Mike Stewart/AP
However, Republican House of Representatives member and Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene comes out in defense of the gun laws.
“We need more good guys with guns to protect our Second Amendment,” she says.
It would be the second time in American history that a parent has been convicted of involvement in a mass shooting if Colin Gray is found guilty.
In April, Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced to ten years in prison for failing to prevent their son Ethan from taking a gun in his backpack to Oxford High School where four people were subsequently killed.
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full screenColin Gray in court on Friday. Photo: Brynn Anderson/AP