- Father gave son gun used in school shooting
- Grandparents blame father for Colt’s actions
- Colt faces life in prison; father charged
The ‘evil’ father of Georgia school shooting suspect Colt Gray deserves to die for raising his son to be a mass murderer, according to the boy’s grandparents.
Colin Gray is charged with four counts of manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder after allegedly giving his son the AR-15-style gun used in Wednesday’s atrocity at Apalachee High School.
Gray’s ex-father-in-law claimed the 14-year-old was ‘motivated by his father to do what he did’ as it was revealed that Colt’s grandmother had visited the school outside Winder only hours before the massacre to discuss his behaviour.
“Spending 11 years with that son of a b***h screaming and hollering every day, it can affect anyone,” Charles Polhamus, 81, told the New York Post.
Gray, 54, appeared in court on Friday after being detained for his role in the shooting that killed two pupils and two teachers and injured nine.
The suspected gunman’s parents split in 2022 after being evicted from their home, and Colt was living with Gray at the time of the incident.
‘Colt needs to pay for what he did, but I’m telling you, he was driven, without a doubt,’ Polhamus said from his home in Fitzgerald.
Colt is like many young kids, with the tablets, some of the junk they dig up, the blood, and all the fighting.
‘If you don’t believe it affects young children, you’re missing the point, and that was also part of Colt’s issue.
‘It’s part of it—and living with a disordered father who screamed and hollers.
‘There is no question about that. Before this, he was a good child. I’ll preach that forever.
Polhamus stated that his wife Deborah had gone to the school the day before the incident as family worry for Colt grew.
‘They were having some issues with him not coming to school and that sort of thing,’ he told CBS.
“My wife went there the day before and met with the teachers to get him some.”
Polhamus spoke up when it was reported that his daughter, Marcee Gray, called her son’s school to alert them to a ‘severe situation’ minutes before the shooting began.
‘I told them it was a serious emergency and that they needed to go quickly and get [my kid] to check on him,’ the mother informed her sister in text exchanges obtained by the Washington Post.
According to the site, a call log from the family’s shared phone plan shows Gray calling the school for 10 minutes at 9.50 a.m. on Wednesday, about half an hour before Colt reportedly opened fire.
She then got into her car and began driving toward the school, which was more than three hours away.
But halfway there, she discovered that the catastrophe she was trying to prevent had already occurred.
‘I was the one who notified the high school counsellor,’ he explained to her sister.
Further text exchanges provided by Marcee’s sister revealed that Colt’s school and family were in communication about his deteriorating mental health at least a week before the incident.
According to one text, Brown informed a relative that Colt was experiencing ‘homicidal and suicidal ideas.’
‘He shouldn’t have a gun, and he should’ve gone to THERAPY months ago,’ she wrote in the text.
Brown stated that her nephew had spent months ‘begging’ for mental health treatment, but the ‘adults surrounding him failed him.
A judge previously ordered Marcee to have only restricted contact with Colt’s father after pleading guilty to a charge of family violence last December.
Months earlier, in May 2023, the family was contacted by local law enforcement following an FBI report about threats to commit a school shooting.
Colt denied making the threats, and Gray told police that while he kept hunting firearms in the house, his son was not permitted to use them alone.
However, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation claimed the boy’s father gave him access to the AR-style rifle used in the shooting. At the same time, authorities looked into accusations that it had been given to him as a Christmas present in December last year.
Polhamus claimed his former son-in-law cost the family their ‘half-million-dollar farm’ after becoming addicted to drugs following a back injury.
And he claimed his daughter was lured into her then-husband’s addiction but had always remained dedicated to their three children.
‘She is a nice person and mother,’ he insisted. But I’m going back to what I stated about narcissists: they can transform anyone.
“Marcee never did anything to Colt. All she did was assist him out.
He also stated that his grandson texted her ‘I’m sorry, Mom’ on the morning of the incident.
‘Colt did not cause that to occur. He did it,” Polhamus stated.
‘He did not wake up one day and decide he was going to kill people. No, he did not do that. He emerged from an environment.
What happens to your foot if you tread into a wad of s? You step into a wad of s.
This is no different. I lived there for 11 years with my daughter and her children.
If you live in that relationship for 11 years, you will not be stable.
Several students told similar stories of Colt sneaking out of algebra class around 10 a.m. on Wednesday and returning minutes later with a gun.
Bri Jones, 14, said she almost opened the door to Gray but stopped herself ‘as he was getting his gun out.’
Jones told CNN that she froze and said ‘no’ to herself. He would have had every one of us in that class.
Jones claimed she almost opened the door but stopped herself after receiving a tip from her mother.
I always glance out the door before opening it. ‘It’s a habit my mother taught me,’ she explained.
Despite seeing the pistol, Jones claims her teacher persuaded her to enter the door ‘because she didn’t realize he had a gun because she was at her desk.’
‘She was about to walk over there and open it, and I was like, ‘No, he has a pistol,” Jones remembered.
‘The shooter looked up,’ Jones added. ‘He was looking at me, my teacher, and suddenly someone entered the hall. He twisted his head and started shooting.
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‘Once he started firing, it seemed as if he never stopped; it was gunfire after gunshot… It felt like he was shooting indefinitely, and suddenly it stopped.’
Students claimed that after Gray failed to enter his classroom, he opened fire on the one next door since their door was open.
At that point, instructor Richard Aspinwall was shot dead in front of his frightened students, leaving pupil Malaysia Mitchell scarred.
‘We had to drag our teacher’s entire body into the classroom,’ she said to CNN. ‘We heard him draw his final breath.
Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14 years old, perished in Georgia’s bloodiest school shooting, as did math instructor Christina Irimie, 53.
‘He pulled the triggers,’ Polhamus explained. He killed people, and he’s my grandchild, which kills my damn heart.
Colt is being tried as an adult, and he was told at his court appearance on Friday that he might face the rest of his life in prison for the violent present.
His father is facing eight counts of child maltreatment, as well as murder and manslaughter accusations.
He is receiving what he deserves. Polhamus added, “My grandson is also getting what he deserves.”
‘Vengeance is mine,’ declares the Lord.
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