ATLANTA — The mother of a student who was killed by a teenager at a Georgia high school said information showing school staff were warned the student was in danger suggests the shooting could have been prevented.
“The school system let them down. They could have prevented these deaths and they didn't,” LaVecca Sayalath said in a phone interview with The Associated Press on Sunday. “I really, really feel that way.”
Mr. Sayalas' daughter, Layella, told reporters on Wednesday after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, that it appeared school administrators were searching for 14-year-old Colt Gray, who has been charged with four counts of murder, before the shooting began.
But others refuse to hold schools or law enforcement accountable.
“I'm not going to judge or criticize the officers for what happened the other night,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, said Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union.” “I applaud our first responders. While others are running from danger, they're running into it to do their best.”
Authorities said Gray shot and killed students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimy, 53. Eight other students and one teacher were wounded, seven by gunfire, and are expected to recover.
Annie Brown told The Washington Post that her sister, Colt Gray's mother, texted her that she had spoken with a school counselor before the murder and alerted staff to an “extreme emergency.” Brown said Marcy Gray urged staff to find and check on her son “immediately.”
Brown provided screenshots of the text exchange to the newspaper, and the paper reported that call records from the family's shared phone plan showed a call to the school at 9:50 a.m. The shooting began at 10:20 a.m., according to Gray's arrest warrant.
Brown confirmed the report to The Associated Press in a text message on Saturday but declined further comment.
Marcy Gray expressed regret for Saturday's shooting to The Washington Post and The New York Post.
“I am so sorry and cannot imagine the pain and suffering they are going through right now,” Gray told The Washington Post in a text.
“It's awful. It's absolutely awful,” Gray told the New York Post outside her father's home in Fitzgerald, Georgia, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Atlanta.
The boy's grandfather, Charles Polhamus, told multiple news outlets that Marcy Gray received a text message from his son on Wednesday saying he was sorry. Polhamus told CNN that Marcy Gray drove from Fitzgerald to Winder, more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) away, immediately after the shooting.
The Washington Post also reported text messages showing that a week before the shooting, relatives had contacted the school about the boy's mental health and that Brown had told relatives that the boy was having “homicidal and suicidal thoughts.” The Post reported that the boy's grandmother, Deborah Polhamus, had met with a school counselor to ask for help.
After the meeting, Polhamus texted Brown to say the boy would be “seeing a therapist starting tomorrow.”
Investigators have not said what Gray's motive might have been or whether they believe he was targeting a specific victim.
Authorities have said Gray's father, Collin Gray, gave Gray the semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting. It's unclear how Gray got the gun onto the school grounds or what he did in the two hours between the start of classes at 8:15 a.m. and the start of the gunfire.
What we know about Georgia school shooting suspect Colt Gray's family
- Lauren Vickers, a neighbor of the family, said the children were often locked out of the home.
- Gray's maternal grandfather, Charles Polhamus, said Colin Gray had been abusive towards his grandson and daughter.
- Mr Gray's aunt, Annie Brown, said his mother had struggled with mental health.
Collin Gray is the first parent of a school shooting suspect to be indicted in Georgia, District Attorney Brad Smith announced Friday. Gray is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse for allegedly providing his son with the rifle.
Collin Gray is being held in Barrow County after denying bail during a brief court hearing Friday in Winder. Colt Gray is being held in a juvenile detention center after denying bail. Neither has been charged or arraigned.
Layella Sayalath said she saw Colt Gray leave her algebra classroom on Wednesday and thought he was skipping class.
According to Sayalas, minutes before the shooting, a female administrator came into his class looking for a student who shared Gray's last name and nearly the same first name. The student was in the bathroom, and the administrator demanded to see his bag. The student returned a few minutes later with the bag and told Sayalas that the administrator determined he wasn't the student they were looking for.
According to Sayalath, someone called the teacher on the intercom, apparently asking about Gray, and when the intercom rang a second time, the teacher saw Gray outside the classroom door and responded, “Yes, here he is.”
Sayalath said students stepped back as they tried to open the door, which automatically locks from the inside when closed. She said she saw Colt Gray turn away through the door's window, then heard gunshots — “10 or 15 shots at once, in rapid succession.”
Layella's mother, LaVecca Sayalas, said she thinks the school erred by sending an unarmed administrator to search for Colt Gray instead of one of Apalachee High School's armed school resource officers.
When she questioned Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith about her daughter's story during a press conference Wednesday night, Smith warned, “With all due respect, I believe your information is incorrect.”
It's unclear whether Barrow County school officials knew before the shooting that Colt and Collin Gray had been interviewed by sheriff's deputies from neighboring Jackson County in May 2023 after reports of online threats to shoot up the middle school where Colt Gray, who was 13 at the time, attended.
“I would never say something like that, even as a joke,” Colt Gray told a deputy, according to a report filed by investigators. No action was taken because of discrepancies in information about the social media accounts used to make the threats.
Collin Gray told investigators at the time that Colt had access to an unloaded gun in the house but knew “how to use it and how not to use it.” He also said his son had struggled since he and his wife separated and that Colt was being bullied at school.
Barrow County School District spokeswoman Nicole Valles declined to comment Sunday in response to emailed questions seeking details about what happened before the shooting.
“This is an ongoing investigation and trial so I cannot comment on specific details,” Barres wrote, referring questions to the district attorney.
Smith did not immediately respond to an email asking similar questions Sunday, but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation referred a request for comment to the district attorney's office.
