THE mother of suspected Apalachee High shooter Colt Gray has insisted she tried to warn the school when she got a concerning text from her son – right before his alleged rampage.
Marcee Gray, 43, and her father Charles Polhamus, 81, spoke out about the shooting that left two teachers and two students dead and another nine injured on Wednesday.
Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with four counts of felony murder and will be tried as an adult after allegedly opening fire at his high school in Barrow County, Georgia, about 53 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Police say he shot and killed fellow students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie.
When cops rushed into the school minutes after the shooting, Colt immediately surrendered and was taken into custody.
His mother, Marcee, was photographed on Saturday for the first time since her son’s alleged killing spree.
The mom said she tried to warn the school after getting a concerning text from her son the morning of the rampage.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” the message read.
Marcee was at her father’s house in Fitzgerald at the time – a three-hour drive from Winder, where her son went to school.
The mom desperately tried to call Apalachee High School and warn them of an “extreme emergency,” a family member told The Washington Post.
At 9:50 am, the mother had a 10-minute call with the school — about half an hour before the gunman opened fire, per call logs seen by the outlet.
“I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school,” Marcee told her sister after the shooting in texts seen by WaPo.
“I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”
During the call, a counselor told Marcee Colt had been talking about a school shooting that morning, according to Annie Brown, Marcee’s sister.
Counselors tried to find Colt in his classroom but were unsuccessful – and gunfire began soon after.
Marcee learned about the four deaths while she was racing to her son’s school from her father’s house, he told The New York Post.
She was spotted outside her dad’s house on Saturday and told the outlet, “It’s horrible. It’s absolutely horrible.”
Below is a timeline of the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4:
8:30 am – First period begins at AHS
9:45 am – Suspect Colt Gray leaves algebra class, according to his classmate
10:20 am – Police start to receive calls about an active shooter
10:23 am – Law enforcement officers are dispatched to school and arrive in minutes
10:45 am – AHS sends message to parents saying the school is in a hard lockdown
11:20 am – Students are evacuated to the football field
11:56 am – Barrow County Sheriff’s Office reports a suspect is in custody
2:13 pm – Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirms four people were killed and nine were hospitalized with injuries
Marcee declined to go into further detail but appeared devastated outside her dad Polhamu’s home.
When asked if she had anything to say to the families of the victims, she said, “Nothing to anyone right now. I’ll have my time to speak. It’s not right now.”
Polhamus, too, was horrified by the shooting and blamed Colt’s father, Colin Gray.
Colin, 54, was arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children in connection to the shooting.
The father allegedly “knowingly allowed” Gray to possess the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack.
He gave it to him as a Christmas gift, according to police.
“Colin Gray did this to his family and he will rot in hell for it. That’s a fact,” Polhamus told The New York Post.
Polhamus was mortified by his grandson’s actions but still blamed dad Colin – and Colt’s upbringing.
“He was a good kid turned bad in a bad situation,” the grandfather said.
“It’s sad. An environment that a kid grows up in has everything to do with their personality and what they become.”
Mom Marcee has her own criminal record that spans 17 years.
Her arrest record includes charges of drug possession, aggravated battery, theft, and criminal trespass.
She also faced charges of false imprisonment and failure to appear in January.
Once, during an incident, she allegedly “threatened to kill her husband,” per the Daily Mail.
Despite her past, her father still argues Colt’s behavior was “100%” Colin’s fault.
“Zero on Marcee. Marcee never did anything to Colt. All she did is help him out,” he said.
He also argued any reports that she abused her children were “not true.”
“Colt didn’t cause that to happen. … He didn’t wake up one day and decide I’m going to kill [four] people. No, he didn’t do that. He came out of an environment,” Polhamus said.
When asked about Colin potentially spending the rest of his life behind bars on the charges he’s been jailed on, Polhamus had a stern response.
“[Colin’s] getting what he deserves. My grandson is getting what he deserves, too,” he said.
The grandfather added, “Colt has to pay for what he did but I’m telling you, he was driven, no question in my mind.
“He was driven by his father to do what he did. That’s as plain as I can put it and I know I’m right.”
It emerged after the shooting that Colt was on the FBI’s radar for more than a year before the school massacre.
FBI agents had traced Colt to his father’s house and questioned them both about threats to shoot up a school on a social media platform called Discord.
Colt denied he was behind the threats and his dad stood by him, insisting he’d get rid of the guns in the house if his son made concerning statements.
Then-13-year-old Colt told investigators he stopped using Discord because “too many people kept hacking his account, and he was afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes.”
The report said, “Colt expressed concern that someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner.”
Colt was described as “calm and reserved” during the interview.
Investigators eventually determined that there wasn’t enough evidence to take action.
The charges against dad Colin mark the first time in Georgia history that a parent of a school shooting suspect has been charged in connection with the crime.
It marks the second time in US history that a parent has been charged for their child’s alleged actions in a school shooting.
Apalachee High School is in Barrow County — 58 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia.
The school has about 1,900 students and is one of two high schools in the school district.
Students returned from summer break on August 1.
