Gripping footage of the moment cops missed their biggest chance to stop Georgia school shooting suspect Colt Gray has been released, five days after the attack that left four dead.
Officers from Jackson County Sheriff’s Office visited the family home in Jefferson in May last year after they were warned by the FBI that Colt had threatened a school shooting in a message on the gaming platform Discord.
Police bodycam footage shows Colt’s father casually sipping an energy drink on the porch as he admits his then 13-year-old son has access to unsecured guns in the house behind him, but insists he will be ‘mad as hell’ if the claims turn out to be true.
Asked to summon Colt, he tells the cops to ‘instill in him.. This is no joke’.
But he holds his hands out as he warns: ‘Now look he’s going to get all red face when you talk to him, just.. Calm.’
Colin Gray seemed surprised to see police on the doorstep of his Jefferson home
He warned police to remain ‘calm’ when talking to his son during their visit in May last year
Gray, 54, faces four counts of manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder amid claims he gave his son the AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre at Apalachee High School on Wednesday.
The father-of-three told the officers he was old officers he was ‘in shock’ and ‘a little p***ed off’ at the claims and claims he has had conversations with his son about school shootings.
The footage opens with an officer asking him whether his son plays ‘a lot of computer games and stuff’.
‘Yeah he does, like all the time,’ Gray replies.
‘Do you think there’s something he might wanna..?’ the cop asks.
‘I damn sure want to know,’ Gray insists as he cracks open his can.
He nods when the officer asks him whether there are weapons in the house, and admits ‘they are’, when asked if they are accessible by Colt.
‘I mean there’s nothing loaded but they are there,’ he explains. ‘We actually do a lot of shooting, we do a lot of deer hunting, he shot his first deer this year.’
Challenged directly over threats of a school shooting, Gray replies: ‘I don’t know anything about him saying **** like that.
‘I’m going to be mad as hell if he did, and then all the guns will go away. And they won’t be accessible to him.
Dressed casually in a baggy T-shirt and sweatpants the alleged killer cut a very different figure to the long-haired blond teenager seen in court last week.
His father seemed keen to end the interview as Colt denied making threats online
Sixteen months later teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39 and Cristina Irimie, 53, were to lose their lives alongside students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, in the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history
Gray cut a very different figure as he cried and rocked back and forth in a court appearance on Friday charged with four counts of manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder
Colt Gray too was unrecognizable as he made his first court appearance on Friday
‘You know I’m trying to be honest with him,’ he continues.
‘I’m trying to teach him about firearms and safety and how to do it all and get him interested in the outdoors, like off his phone.’
‘Get him away from those video games,’ the cop giggles.
‘Exactly right,’ Colt’s father replies.
The high school outside Winder remains closed five days after the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history claimed the lives of two 14-year-olds and two teachers.
Gray, who appeared in the same courthouse as his son of Friday deserves to die for turning his son into a mass murderer, the boy’s grandfather Charlie Polhamus told Dailymail.com on Monday.
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Polhamus, the father of Gray’s former wife Marcee, said Colt ‘didn’t have any guidance’, and he was allowed to watch whatever he wanted on TV and the internet when staying with his father.
‘He’s a full-fledged narcissist and he finally getting what he deserves’, he added.
Gray insisted he took an active interest in his son as he was questioned by the police 16 months ago.
‘I ask him ‘are you getting picked on at school?’ Gray said.
‘He is. He’s getting picked on at school. And ‘is everything ok?’
‘That’s why I keep going up there.’
Seconds later, Colt is seen emerging nervously onto the porch after being summoned by his father.
Dressed casually in a baggy T-shirt and sweatpants he cut a very different figure to the long-haired blond teenager seen in court last week.
But in the footage he was wearing an only slightly smaller version of the silver crucifix dangling on a chain around his father’s neck.
‘Did your dad kind of explain everything to you?’ the cop asks him.
Colt’s father Colin Gray (pictured left) is facing felony charges in connection with the shooting. Polhamus claims the boy’s dad ‘ruined’ Colt and wasn’t a ‘supportive’ parent
Colt has his hands in his pockets and sways slightly from side to side as he begins to mumble a reply.
‘He said something about..’
‘Shooting up a school,’ his father interjects his eyes focused on the ground.
‘Did you say something about shooting up a school?’ the officer asks.
‘Never, I just told him, I don’t know what, maybe they misheard somebody else, I don’t remember saying..’ the boy replies.
‘Do you use Discord?’ the officer inquires.
‘Discord?’
‘Yes sir,’ the officer says.
‘Um, I used to, I don’t have it anymore.’
‘When was the last time you used it?’ he is asked.
‘Um, maybe like a few months ago..’
Colt was introduced to weapons by his father, who claims he took him hunting out of fear he could be caught up in a school shooting and unable to defend himself. Colt is pictured in January 2023 with a 450 Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that he used to kill a deer
He said he had it deleted because ‘I think it got like it had been password pulled or something, like I had clicked on a link and somebody had..’
‘I mean I’m not trying to get anyone hemmed up or anything,’ the officer says, ‘but this is some serious stuff.’
‘Oh he knows how serious it is, trust me,’ Gray interjects.
Colt insisted he never saw threats of a shooting on the platform, and his father seemed keen to wind up the interview as the officer sums up what he has been told.
‘He’s telling me he didn’t,’ the cop says.
‘Yeah,’ says Gray, now leaning on a wall.
‘He’s telling me he can’t remember anything like that?’
‘Yep,’ the father confirms.
‘I take you at your word,’ the cop tells Colt. ‘If you look me in the eye and tell me that’s what you’re telling me?’
Colt nods as the officer admits: ‘I’ve got no choice but to take you at your word right now.
‘But like I was telling your dad if we find out otherwise then it’s a different story.’
‘It’s a really different story,’ his father growls.
Colt is being tried as an adult and was told at his court appearance on Friday that he could spend the rest of his life behind bars for the violent present.
His father faces eight counts of cruelty to children, as well as his murder and manslaughter charges.
The father and son both appeared at Barrow County Superior Court on Friday, in shackles and handcuffed at the front of their body.
Colt reportedly told police ‘I did it’ when read his Miranda rights after his arrest on Wednesday.
The teen, dressed in a green T-shirt and grey sweatpants, kept his head down, with his hair covering his face, and spoke softly only to Judge Currie Mingledorff, replying ‘yes sir’ when asked to confirm his name.
Meanwhile his father, Colin, cried as he appeared shortly after his son in the same courtroom, rocking back and forth.
Since the deadly rampage, it has emerged that Colt, pictured as a toddler, had a seemingly unstable childhood. His mother Marcee (left) has a criminal record spanning more than 17 years and his father Colin (right) was allegedly ‘dysfunctional’ and could be heard ‘screaming and hollering every day’
Gray shuffled in wearing a prison-issued striped shirt and tracksuit, in shackles like his son.
He stated his name in a croaky voice, confirming his age, and that he was able to read and write.
Judge Mingledorff advised the elder Gray that he could face up to 30 years in prison for each felony murder count, 10 years for each involuntary manslaughter charges and cruelty to children – the maximum totaling 180 years.
‘He’s getting what he deserves. My grandson is getting what he deserves, too,’ Polhamus said.
‘Vengeance is mine, say the lord.’