A 14-year-old boy stands charged with four counts of murder, accused of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers this week at his high school in Georgia. Colt Gray had his first hearing Friday after being charged as an adult in the latest mass shooting at a school in the U.S.
Immediately after that hearing, his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, appeared in the same courtroom, charged with multiple offenses for allowing his son to have a weapon.
The shooting Wednesday morning at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, has left the father and son behind bars, families planning funerals and people wondering what happened and why.
How it happened
WHAT WE KNOW: Colt Gray was in algebra class when he left the classroom, according to classmates. One believed he was skipping class again. But Gray returned and knocked for someone to open the locked door. Students who went to the door saw something through the window and backed away. Classmate Lyela Sayarath said she saw Gray turn and then heard gunshots — ''10 or 15 of them at once, back-to-back.'' A school resource officer found the shooter, who surrendered at 10:26 a.m. Authorities say the suspect killed four people. Nine others were hurt, seven of them shot. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says the suspect acted alone.
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW: Authorities have not identified a motive for the shootings. Officials also have not said where in the school the victims were shot. Eyewitness accounts indicate some were shot in a hallway and at least one in a classroom, however. It's also not known how the suspect got to school that day, whether he took a bus or got a ride; how the gun got into the school; and where it was ahead of the shooting. Authorities say the school does not have metal detectors.
Who the victims were
WHAT WE KNOW: Authorities have identified the four people killed as students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. The eight students and one teacher who were taken to the hospital are expected to make full recoveries. Angulo's sister Lisette described him on a GoFundMe fundraiser for his funeral as ''a very good kid and very sweet and so caring.'' A neighbor of Schermerhorn said he was an inquisitive boy who he watched grow up from around age 4.