With father of suspect charged in Georgia shooting, will more parents be held responsible?

'You don't want to be able to allow parents to overlook those kinds of signs there is something seriously wrong or a serious risk,' says former prosecutor

Author of the article:

The Associated Press

Ed White

Published Sep 07, 2024  •  4 minute read

Colt Gray's father, Colin Gray, was arrested in connection to the shooting. Both appeared in court on Friday. Photo by Handout

Murder charges filed against the father of a 14-year-old boy accused of a Georgia school shooting follow the successful prosecution of two parents in Michigan who were held responsible for a similar tragedy at a school north of Detroit.

Is it a sign of a crackdown on parents accused of gross negligence when it comes to kids and guns? Could public outrage lead to more prosecutions or changes in law in other states, too?

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“It’s a matter of looking at the relationship between what the child says and does and what the parent knows about what the child says and does,” said David Shapiro, a former prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder related to the deaths of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta. Nine more people were wounded.

Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on September 6, 2024, in Winder, Georgia. Photo by Pool /Getty Images

Gray’s son, Colt Gray, is charged with murder. Investigators said he used a “semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle” in the attack.

CP-Web. Colt Gray leaves the the Barrow County courthouse after his first appearance for the Wednesday shooting at Apalachee High School, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga. Photo by Brynn Anderson /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The charges against Colin Gray “are directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Milestone in Michigan

James and Jennifer Crumbley were convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year for the deaths of four students at Oxford High School in 2021. It was the first time that parents were held criminally responsible for a U.S. mass school shooting. They’re serving 10-year prison terms while appeals are pending.

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The Crumbleys didn’t know what son Ethan Crumbley was planning. But prosecutor Karen McDonald said their son’s actions were foreseeable. They were summoned to discuss the 15-year-old’s macabre drawings of a gun and blood on a math assignment and a message, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. My life is useless.”

Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, appear in court in Rochester Hills, Mich. on Feb. 8, 2022 Photo by Paul Sancya /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Crumbleys declined to take him home but said they would seek counseling. On that same day, Ethan Crumbley removed a gun from his backpack and began shooting, using a weapon that James Crumbley had purchased as a gift just a few days earlier. No one — parents or school staff — had checked the backpack.

The parents’ “actions and inactions were inexorably intertwined” with what their son ultimately did at Oxford, the Michigan Court of Appeals said in 2023 when the groundbreaking case was allowed to move forward.

The Georgia case

Prosecutor Brad Smith declined to publicly disclose details that led him to charge Colin Gray in the Apalachee shooting. But in arrest warrants, authorities said he had provided a gun to his son “with knowledge that he was threat to himself and others.”

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Smith acknowledged the Michigan case during a news conference Friday and said his case was a first for 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 the crimes they commit.”

Colin Gray was interviewed last year when authorities were investigating his son about a menacing post on social media. The father said the teen “knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,” according to a transcript. Nothing more was pursued.

McDonald, the prosecutor in Michigan, said the Georgia shooting and the father’s arrest was a “real punch in the stomach.”

“I can’t believe the facts that stood out as so egregious in our case seem to be so similar,” she told The Associated Press.

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More scrutiny for parents?

McDonald said states have laws that carry consequences for gross negligence in various situations. She said it’s encouraging that police in Georgia immediately investigated how the gun was obtained.

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“I have never felt it was a moment that would open the floodgates to charges against parents or sending a message to people,” McDonald said of the Crumbley case. “Most people don’t need that message. It’s heartbreaking to watch it play out.”

Ethan Crumbley sits in court listening to victim impact statements, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Pontiac, Mich. A Michigan teen who was convicted of fatally shooting four students at his high school is appealing his life sentence, his attorneys announced Friday. Photo by Carlos Osorio /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

She said it takes only seconds to put a lock on a gun, which she demonstrated for a jury.

Shapiro, the former New Jersey prosecutor, said all states likely have laws that can be used to hold parents responsible, though much depends on the facts and a prosecutor’s views.

“You don’t want to be able to allow parents to overlook those kinds of signs there is something seriously wrong or a serious risk,” he said.

Michigan has a new law this year that requires adults to keep guns locked up when minors are present. In Newaygo County, a grandfather pleaded no contest in August in the death of a 5-year-old grandson. Another boy had picked up and fired a loaded shotgun.

“If people simply locked up their firearms, we would not be putting parents behind bars for this reason,” said Kris Brown, the president of Brady, a gun violence prevention group. “And we would not be digging as many graves.”

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AP reporters Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this story.

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