The father of a 14-year-old boy accused in a Georgia school shooting has been indicted on murder charges, following the indictment of two parents in Michigan. James and Jennifer Crumbly were accused of being responsible for a similar tragedy at a school north of Detroit.
According to an arrest warrant, Collin Gray gave his son the gun knowing he was a threat. Could public outrage lead to more prosecutions of parents and changes to laws elsewhere?
Experts say it comes down to the unique facts of each case. Most states have laws that impose liability for gross negligence in a variety of circumstances.
Murder charges against the father of a 14-year-old boy accused in a Georgia school shooting follow the successful prosecution of two Michigan parents held responsible for a similar tragedy at a school north of Detroit.
Is this a sign of a crackdown on parents who are accused of gross negligence when it comes to their children and guns? Could public outrage lead to further prosecutions and changes to laws in other states?
“It's about looking at the relationship between what a child says and does and what a parent knows about their child's behavior,” said David Shapiro, a former prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Collin Gray, 54, is charged with manslaughter and second-degree murder in connection with the shooting that left two students and two teachers dead at Apalachee High School in the Atlanta suburb of Winder, and nine others injured.
Gray's son, Colt Gray, has been charged with murder, and investigators said the suspect used a “semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle” in the attack.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said the charges against Collin Gray “are directly related to his son's actions and allowing him to possess a weapon.”
Michigan Milestones
James and Jennifer Crumbly were convicted of manslaughter earlier this year for the killings of four students at Oxford High School in 2021. They are the first parents to be held criminally responsible in a mass school shooting in the U.S. They are serving 10-year sentences while their cases are appealed.
The Crumbleys didn't know what their son, Ethan Crumbley, was planning, but prosecutor Karen McDonald said his actions were predictable. They were called to discuss the 15-year-old's eerie drawing of a gun and blood on a math assignment and the message, “I can't stop thinking. Help me. My life is a waste.”
The Crumbleys declined to take him home but said he would receive counseling. That same day, Ethan Crumbley removed a gun from his backpack and began firing. The gun had been purchased as a gift by James Crumbley just days earlier. Neither his parents nor school officials had checked the backpack.
When the Michigan Court of Appeals granted hearing to the landmark case in 2023, it said the parents' “actions and omissions were inextricably intertwined with what their son ultimately did at Oxford.”
Georgia Case Study
Prosecutor Brad Smith did not release details about how Collin Gray was charged in the Apalachee shooting, but authorities said Gray gave the gun to his son “knowing that he was a threat to himself or others,” according to an arrest warrant.
Smith acknowledged the Michigan lawsuit during a press conference Friday and said it is the first of its kind in Georgia.
“I'm not trying to send a message,” he said. “I'm just trying to use the tools in my arsenal to prosecute people for crimes they committed.”
Collin Gray was interviewed last year when authorities were investigating his son over threatening social media posts. His father said his son “knew the severity of the weapon and what it did and how to use it and how not to use it,” according to records. No further investigation was conducted.
McDonald, the Michigan prosecutor, said the Georgia shooting and the father's arrest were “a real shock.”
“I can't believe that the facts that stand out as so egregious in our cases are so similar,” she told The Associated Press.
Increased parental oversight?
McDonald said states have laws that provide penalties for gross negligence in a variety of circumstances, and she said it's encouraging that Georgia police immediately investigated how the guns were obtained.
“I don't think this is going to open the door to charges being filed against parents or send a message to people,” McDonald said of the Crumbly incident. “Most people don't need that message. It's heartbreaking to watch it unfold.”
She said it takes just a few seconds to lock the gun and demonstrated it in front of the jury.
Shapiro, the former New Jersey prosecutor, said every state likely has laws that allow parents to be held liable, although much depends on the facts and the prosecutor's position.
“We cannot allow parents to miss the signs that something is seriously wrong or that there is a serious risk,” he said.
In Michigan, a new law went into effect this year requiring adults to keep guns locked up when minors are present, and in Newaygo County, a grandfather pleaded not guilty in August to the death of his 5-year-old grandson after another boy picked up a loaded shotgun and fired it.
“If people just locked up their guns, we wouldn't be putting parents in jail for this,” said Chris Brown, president of the gun violence prevention group Brady, “and we wouldn't be digging so many graves.”
