Apalachee School Shooter's Father Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
The father of the Apalachee school shooter was sentenced to 15 years after prosecutors said he ignored repeated warning signs and gave his son the rifle used in the attack.
A father who gifted his teenage son the assault rifle used in the 2024 mass shooting at Georgia's Apalachee High School has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Colin Gray, 55, was convicted in March on multiple charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. His son, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty last week to all 55 charges against him and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Killed in the shooting were Richard Aspinwall, 39, a math teacher and football coach; Christina Irimie, 53, also a math teacher; and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14.
During sentencing, Judge Nicholas Primm, who also sentenced the teen shooter, admonished Gray for failing to get his son counseling, monitor his online activity, and secure the firearms in the home, BBC reports.
"It is clear you failed as a parent," Primm said. "The warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter, and you failed to do the simplest things to prevent this."
Primm said he also had to weigh Gray's failure to act against the crimes committed by his son, noting that Gray "didn't seek to harm anyone" and "didn't pull the trigger" himself.
Apalachee Shooter's Father Gave Him Rifle Used in Attack
Gray gave his son the firearm used in the shooting as a Christmas gift in December 2023, seven months after law enforcement investigated allegations that the teen had made online threats about carrying out a school shooting.
Prosecutors argued that Gray ignored multiple warning signs, including a notebook detailing how his son planned to kill students and teachers.
"After seeing sign after sign of his son's deteriorating mental state, his violence, his school-shooter obsession, the defendant had sufficient warning that his son was a bomb just waiting to go off," Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Patricia Brooks told jurors. "And instead of disarming him, he gave him the detonator."
Apalachee School Shooting Case Reminiscent of Oxford School Shooting Case
Gray was arrested two days after the shooting and is among the few parents in the United States to be convicted in connection with a mass shooting carried out by their child.
In 2024, the parents of the Oxford High School shooter were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, becoming the first parents in the U.S. to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child.
Prosecutors argued that Jennifer and James Crumbley were grossly negligent in providing their then-15-year-old son with the handgun he used in the attack despite numerous warning signs that he was struggling emotionally and posed a risk to others. James Crumbley purchased the firearm for his son just days before the shooting.
Killed in that shooting were students Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, and Justin Shilling, 17.