CBS News
Teen accused in Georgia shooting rode to school with assault rifle hidden in his backpack, investigators say
The student accused of killing four people in a Georgia high school shooting rode the school bus that morning with a semiautomatic assault rifle concealed in his backpack, investigators confirmed Thursday.
Colt Gray then left his second-period classroom after getting permission to go to the front office at Apalachee High School but hid from teachers in a bathroom before emerging to begin the assault, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith.
The new details fill in some key questions about how the 14-year-old got a gun that could not be folded down to the school in Winder, northeast of Atlanta, before a shooting that killed two students and two teachers and injured nine others.
The teen’s grandfather told CBS News that the morning of the shooting, his mother, Marcee Gray, received a cryptic message from her son.
She called the school in a panic on the morning of Sept. 4 after getting the message, which said “I’m sorry,” and said Colin Gray, the boy’s father, received similar text messages that morning.
Marcee Gray said school officials told her on that call that they were already worried about her son’s behavior. He had enrolled at the school after it had already begun Aug. 1, Smith has said.
“The counselor said, ‘Well, I want to let you know that earlier this morning, one of Colt’s teachers has sent me an email that said Colt had been making references to school shootings,” Gray said in an interview with ABC News.
Marcee Gray and other relatives on her side of the family have said they had sought the school’s assistance the week before the shooting to get psychiatric treatment for the teen.
“I wanted Colt to be admitted to an impatient treatment,” Gray told ABC News. “Colt was on board with it.”
A school employee went to look for Colt Gray the morning of the shooting, but confused him with a fellow student with the same last name and similar first name, police and a student said. By that time, Gray had had left his second-period algebra class, going to the bathroom instead of the front office, investigators said.
The accused shooter is charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded.
Authorities have also charged his father, Colin Gray, alleging that he gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others. He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children
Last year, Colt Gray and his father were questioned by FBI agents about reports of online posts threatening a school shooting. In bodycam footage released earlier this week, the teen can be seen denying writing the posts. Investigators say they didn’t have enough evidence for an arrest at the time.
Seven months later, Colin Gray allegedly gave his son a rifle for Christmas. The gun was purchased by the teen’s father as a gift, according to four federal law enforcement sources close to the investigation.
The 13,000 students at Barrow County’s other schools returned to class Tuesday. Officials have not announced a restart date for the 1,900 students who attend Apalachee.
Here’s a timeline of what happened on the day of the attack, based on statements by authorities and reporting by The Associated Press and other news media:
8:15 a.m. – First period begins. Officials have not said what class Colt Gray was scheduled for, or if he attended. Officials said Colt Gray rode the school bus to Apalachee High School carrying a semiautomatic assault rifle hidden in his backpack.
9:38 a.m. – First period ends. Students have seven minutes to change to their next class.
9:45 a.m. – Second period begins. Student Lyela Sayarath said she briefly saw Gray in the algebra class where the two sat next to each other. Investigators say Gray left the classroom asking to go speak to someone in the front office, but instead took his backpack with the gun inside and hid in a bathroom.
9:50 a.m. – Marcee Gray, Colt’s mother, calls the high school from 200 miles away in Fitzgerald, Georgia, to warn that her son was having an “extreme emergency” after getting a text from Colt saying “I’m sorry.” Marcee Gray said a counselor said they had received an email earlier that morning from one of Colt Gray’s teachers saying he had been talking about school shootings. Gray said she urged them to find her son to check on him. Call logs show the call lasted until 10 a.m.
9:45 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. – An administrator comes to the algebra classroom looking for a student with the same last name and a similar first name to Colt Gray, Sayarath and Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said. When the other student returns, he tells Sayarath that the administrator was actually seeking Colt Gray. In the meantime, the teacher is called on the intercom, Sayarath said.
About 10:20 a.m. – Colt Gray approaches the door of the algebra classroom. As the intercom buzzes again, the teacher responds, “Oh, he’s here,” seeing Gray outside the classroom door, Sayarath said. When students go to open the door, which automatically locks from the inside when closed, Sayarath said they backed away. She said she saw Colt Gray turn away through the window of the door and then she said she heard 10 or 15 consecutive gunshots. People are shot in the hallway and inside at least one classroom, as others in the halls scramble for safety. According to some students, the three teachers who are shot are trying to protect students.
10:23 a.m. – After multiple employees press wireless panic buttons embedded in their employee badges, the school goes into lockdown and a massive law enforcement response begins. Students in other classrooms who hear the gunshots begin texting and calling their parents and others.
10:26 a.m. – The two school resource officers assigned to Apalachee High School approach Gray in the hall, according to GBI Director Chris Hosey. Gray immediately surrenders and is taken into custody.
About 11 a.m. – Law enforcement officers begin searching Colin and Colt Gray’s house east of Winder. At the school, officers go from classroom to classroom, first looking for more people with injuries or other shooters. Later, officers evacuate students to the football field as hundreds of parents rush to campus.
About 1 p.m. – The school begins releasing students to parents to take them home.
CBS News
U.S. Marines, Japanese and Australian troops will train together amid heightened concerns over China
U.S. Marines will take part in joint training with Japanese and Australian forces in northern Australia, the three countries’ defense ministers announced Sunday as they expressed concern about a spate of confrontations with China’s increasingly assertive military.
Australia’s acting Prime Minister Richard Marles hosted U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defense Minister Nakatani Gen for talks in Darwin, Australia.
The trilateral amphibious training between Australia, Japan and the U.S. Marine rotational force in northern Australia will begin in 2025 with Exercise Talisman Sabre. Australia will also join Exercise Orient Shield in Japan for the first time next year.
“Recognizing the critical role the trilateral partnership plays to uphold regional stability, we commit to trilateral policy coordination and to consult each other on regional security issues and contingencies,” they said in a joint statement.
In their statement, the three defense ministers reiterated “serious concern” about destabilizing actions in the East and South China seas including “dangerous conduct” by the Chinese military against Philippine and other vessels from the region. China claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety.
“We reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion,” they said, adding that it is “important that all states are free to exercise rights and freedoms consistent with international law.”
The ministers also urged the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military harassment with frequent drills around the island.
Marles, who is also Australia’s defense minister, said following talks with his Japanese counterpart in September that both nations looked to ways to build greater familiarity between their forces. One of the “obvious opportunities” was for Japan to participate in activities during the U.S. Marine rotation in Australia, he said Sunday.
“Having a more forward-leaning opportunity for greater training with Japan and the U.S. together is a really fantastic opportunity,” he said.
Asked if the increased military cooperation would anger Beijing, Marles said the decision was about building “the best relationships possible with like-minded countries, with our friends and with our allies.”
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CBS News
How do you make a portrait of a child who isn’t there? Photographer Lou Bopp found a way, but it wasn’t easy.
In early 2018, I was deplaning after an 18-hour flight when Steve Hartman called. He had an idea: to photograph the still-intact bedrooms of kids who had been killed in school shootings.
It’s a headful. And six years later, I still don’t have an “elevator pitch” for the project — but then, I don’t often talk about this project. It is by far the most difficult I have ever worked on.
When Steve, my friend of about 25 years, asked me if I would like to be involved, I said yes without hesitation — even though I didn’t think we would get any families to agree. There is no way that I would have said no to partnering with him on this.
Emotionally, I was not sure how I would get through it. Within a few months I was on my way to Parkland, Florida. Alone. I’m not sure that I realized that I would be on my own.
But here I was. An on-location commercial photographer who focuses on people and pets to create compelling, honest, textural and connective moments for large brands, per my LinkedIn professional profile, on a project where there is no one to take photos of — for the most brutal of reasons.
How do you make a portrait of a child who is not there?
In each of these children’s rooms — the most sacred of places for these families — there was the sense that the child had just been there, and was coming right back. It was as if they’d just left their room like that when they went to school in the morning and were returning in the afternoon.
I wanted to capture that essence.
Most kids’ bedrooms are their very own special places, and these were no different. I looked everywhere, without touching anything. I photographed inside trash cans, under beds, behind desks. Their personalities shone through in the smallest of details — hair ties on a doorknob, a toothpaste tube left uncapped, a ripped ticket for a school event — allowing me to uncover glimpses as to who they were.
But there was an emotional challenge in addition to that creative one. Over the course of more than six years, we visited with many families around the country. The parents I spoke with seemed grateful that I was there. But each time I received a call or text from Steve about a new family, my heart sank.
It meant another family had lost a child.
I find it unfathomable that children being killed at school is even an issue. It makes no sense. It’s impossible to process. The night prior to each one of the family visits, I didn’t sleep. And I knew I wouldn’t going into the project. It’s not a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is nerves. And empathy. And sorrow. And fear.
In my notes from early on in the project, back in 2018, writing in seat 6H on the flight back from Nairobi, I reflected on the emotional task ahead.
“This is going to be one of the most difficult things ever, emotionally, for me, and not just work related. As I read my research documents, I get visibly emotional,” I wrote, noting my gratitude that the dark cabin prevented the other passengers from seeing me.
The prospect brought my own fears to the fore, both for myself — “I can’t help thinking about Rose,” my daughter, “and what if. I’ve lost sleep over envisioning the what-ifs well before Parkland” — and about and for meeting the families in the project: “When I read about April & Phillip and Lori’s plight, I somehow, for some reason put myself in their emotional position even though that is impossible, I have no idea, it’s beyond comprehension, I do not know what they feel. I do not know what I am going to say to them, I’m scared beyond belief. And alone.”
But just days later, I was photographing the first assignment for the project: Alyssa Alhadeff’s room. She was just 14 years old when she walked out of that room to head to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. I was shaky meeting the family friend who greeted me at the house. Her daughter was Alyssa’s best friend, and a photo of the two girls was on the table.
According to my notes, “The room was a beautiful teenager’s messy room. My emotions were kept in check the way that they usually are; By hiding behind the camera. I removed my shoes before entering. My heart was pounding and it reverberated through my body and soul, I felt like I was in one of the most sacred and special places on Earth. I was so careful not to touch anything.”
I left feeling ready to explode in sadness and anger.
Later that day, I photographed Carmen Schentrup’s room. Her younger sister had survived the Parkland shooting, but 16-year-old Carmen was killed in her AP Psychology class. Meeting her parents, April and Phillip, was what I was most scared of.
“I feel so much pain and compassion for them and I don’t want to say the wrong thing, drop cliches etc.,” I wrote at the time. “I spoke to Steve for guidance. He said, just be you. That’s all I can do. Just be me. He was right, those three words helped carry me through this entire project. Just be me.”
April let me in, and I worked quickly, only meeting Phillip as I was leaving. “The conversation felt like we all three were just trying to hold it together. I cannot imagine what they are going through, my heart hurts for them. This was / is such a painful project, and reconciling it will be impossible.
“I think about how anything can happen at any time to any of us. Literally. You never know,” I wrote.
After only about 16 hours on the ground in Florida, I was done with the first portion. I felt the project was a must, but I also dreaded the next call from Steve about the next family. I didn’t know when that call would come — many years later, or the very next day, possibly never.
But last month, we — and the documentary crew that filmed us working — completed this project. While I haven’t seen it yet, I know Steve’s piece won’t be a typical Steve Hartman segment. How could it be? I know he struggled too, and we both have spent a lot of time processing this.
I remember one August evening, I was devastated as I left the home of one of the families. Within minutes, I passed an ice cream shop crowded with other families — seemingly carefree, full of joy and laughter. The juxtaposition, mere minutes apart, cracked my soul.
I hope some way, somehow, this project can facilitate change — the only possible positive outcome for this I could comprehend. After the news cycle ends, these families will still be living with an incomprehensible nightmare.
U.S. Marines, Japanese and Australian troops will train together amid heightened concerns over China
Photographing the rooms of kids killed in school shootings
How do you make a portrait of a child who isn’t there? Photographer Lou Bopp found a way, but it wasn’t easy.
U.S. Marines, Japanese and Australian troops will train together amid heightened concerns over China
Photographing the rooms of kids killed in school shootings