BARROW COUNTY, GA — Testimony continued into the second week of the trial of Colin Gray as jurors listened to the mother of the accused Apalachee high school shooter about her son’s behavior and family conflict before the 2024 shooting.
During the trial on Monday, Marcee Gray says she worried about her son’s mental health but did not believe he wanted to emulate other school shooters.
“He never showed an interest in a way that led me to believe he was idolizing anyone,” Marcee Gray said.
The judge denied a defense motion for a mistrial after Marcee Gray testified that her husband was emotionally abusing their son.
She testified that Colt was well-behaved until middle school, due to frequent moves, her substance abuse, and the parents’ separation. By 2023, she said he began vandalizing property. As his family life became increasingly unstable, Colts behavior became more erratic.
“You could tell he had a lot of anger and just yuck inside of him,” she said.
Marcee Gray said under cross examination that during the two months before the shooting, her son’s behavior was somewhat improved. However, it still included anxiety and aggression.
She said he showed interest in mass shootings.
“I wouldn’t call it an obsession,” describing the interest as connected to the true crime genre, rather than violent intent. “He never showed an interest in a way that led me to believe he was idolizing anyone.”
Mrs. Gray testifies that Colt knocked her down “in one big sweeping motion with his arm/gun” one day in mid-August when she asked him to let her put his rifle away for a little while. That’s when she decided to leave the Barrow County home, but not before asking Colin Gray to lock the guns up in his truck, since the family didn’t have a guns safe any longer.
On August 29, she was doing a series of Internet searches about why the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley were arrested and convicted. On the stand, she says that was because she and her son had recently watched a documentary about them.
The morning of the shooting, Sept. 4, 2024, Marcee says her husband sent her screen shots of concerning texts their son had sent. She says they had a tone to them and she knew something was off. The mother called the school’s guidance counselor, Lisa Butler, and was told that her son had asked a teacher about active shooter drills. She says she told Butler to go locate the teen, and Butler agreed.
“I couldn’t hear urgency in her voice, and I said, ‘I need you to take this seriously. I need you to put down what you’re doing and you need to go find him right now. Please,’” Gray testified.
She says that she did not know what was going on--whether her son was having another anxiety attack like he’d had the week before, or if he might hurt himself or someone else. She says she did not think that her son might have had the gun, but she contacted her husband and asked him to make his way to the school.
Later that morning, she learned there was an active shooter situation at Apalachee High School.
“Before Colt’s name was released, you knew that Colt was the shooter, is that fair to say?” asked Barrow County Asst. District Attorney Patricia Brooks.
“Pretty much, yeah,” said Marcee Gray.
Under cross-examination by the defense, she acknowledged that she had information about her son’s behavior that she did not share with her husband. One such thing was the fact that her son shared with her that he had created an account online to communicate with and send money to the convicted Parkland, Florida school shooter, Nikolas Cruz.
“Safe to say, there were things you knew about Colt that you didn’t share with Colin?” asked defense attorney Brian Hobbs.
“Sure,” she replied.
“And the truth is, you didn’t think anything imminent was about to happen,” said Hobbs.
“No, obviously not. If I thought something was immediately about to happen that was tragic, I would’ve called the police,” Gray testified.
Mrs. Gray had earlier testified that she had arranged for their son to get inpatient care--an idea she says Colt was eager to do. Yet on the last Saturday of the month, when the couple was supposed to take him, she says Colin Gray said he wasn’t coming. Under cross, she admits she let it drop, too.
“You didn’t insist on your mom driving you up here so you could make sure he got over there?” asked Hobbs.
“No, I didn’t,” she said.
Prosecutors say Colin Gray had red flags about the boy’s behavior right in front of him because he had sole custody of their children while Marcee Gray was jailed and doing substance abuse rehab. The defense pushed back on that idea, noting that the mother did not raise any alarms.
“So, you’re not here today telling the jury or anyone that you saw this coming?” defense attorney Brian Hobbs asked Gray.
“I did not see a mass school shooting coming,” Marcee Gray testified. “Maybe I was just not wanting to face it because I was his mother.
“I don’t know, but I...it was the last thing that I would have guessed.”
Colt, who was 14 years old at the time of the shooting, faces 55 counts, including murder in the deaths of four people including two teachers and two students. Several others were also injured in the shooting.
WSB Radio’s Veronica Waters contributed to this story.
