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Georgia shooting suspect’s grandmother visited school one day before massacre to discuss his behavioral issues, family says
The maternal grandmother of the 14-year-old suspect in the deadly Apalachee High School shooting in Winder, Georgia, visited the school the day before the massacre to discuss the suspect’s alleged behavioral issues, the family revealed to CBS News Saturday.
“My wife had gone up there…the day before and met with the teachers to get him some, they were having some problems with him not going to school, and this kind of thing,” Charlie Polhamus, the maternal grandfather of suspect Colt Gray, told CBS News in a phone interview. “So, my wife went up there. This was the day before all this stuff happened.”
Polhamus was unsure what occurred during that visit, but said it did not appear to have resulted in a suspension.
He also disclosed the suspect texted his mother, Marcee Gray, on the morning of the shooting.
“Marcee got a text on the phone from Colt saying, ‘I’m sorry, mother.’ And I…didn’t know what was going on,” Polhamus said. “And then we heard on the news of the shooting.”
Two teachers and two students were killed in Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High in northern Georgia’s Barrow County, and another nine people were wounded.
Polhamus told CBS News he has been dealing with conflicting emotions since the shooting, love for his grandson and disgust over the crime he’s accused of committing.
“He pulled the triggers,” Polhamus said. “He killed people and…he’s my grandson, and it breaks my damn heart.”
The suspect has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder. He made his first court appearance Friday, but has not yet entered a plea.
The boy’s father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, was arrested Thursday on two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children. He also made his first court appearance Friday.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the boy’s father allowed him to have access to the AR-style rifle for his son that was used in the shooting, and multiple federal law enforcement sources told CBS News this week that investigators are looking into whether the gun was purchased by Colin Gray in December 2023 as a gift for his son.
The FBI reported this week that several months prior, in May 2023, it received anonymous tips about online posts threatening a school shooting which were traced to Colt Gray. In response, sheriff’s deputies with Jackson County, which neighbors Barrow County, interviewed both the suspect and his father, but did not pursue the issue further.
Local police records obtained by CBS News indicated that Gray’s parents were going through a messy divorce around that time, with his mother taking custody of two other children in the divorce while the suspect stayed with his father.
Since Wednesday’s tragedy, meanwhile, there’s been a wave of school threats across Georgia. Law enforcement officials have now arrested more than 13 juveniles and one adult accused of making threats to schools in at least eight different counties.
The FBI on Friday deemed a majority of the social media threats non-credible, and warned that such social media posts will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
— Anna Schecter, Jared Eggleston and Amy Westerby contributed to this report.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
