Father of Georgia shooting suspect gave son an AR-15 style rifle as a gift, sources say

The daddy of the 14-year-old charged with homicide within the capturing at a highschool in Georgia purchased his son an AR-15 fashion rifle as a present, in response to two legislation enforcement sources aware of the investigation.

The daddy gave his son the firearm in some unspecified time in the future after the 2 had been interviewed by legislation enforcement in reference to threats to hold out a college capturing, the sources mentioned.

Regulation enforcement officers didn’t arrest {the teenager} after that Might 2023 interview as a result of they might not tie him to an internet account that had made the threats, in response to newly launched paperwork.

The teenager, Colt Grey, fatally shot 4 individuals — two academics and two college students — on Wednesday at Apalachee Excessive College in Winder on his first full day as a brand new pupil there, authorities mentioned. He has been charged as an grownup and was because of seem in courtroom Friday morning.

His father, Colin Grey, 54, was arrested on allegations that he allowed his son to own a weapon, and charged with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree homicide and eight counts of cruelty to kids, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation mentioned Thursday.

The teenage suspect had additionally proven curiosity in prior mass shootings, significantly the 2018 bloodbath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College in Parkland, Florida, in response to two senior legislation enforcement officers briefed on the investigation.

The knowledge got here because of the searches carried out within the investigation into the capturing.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Workplace interviewed {the teenager} and his father after the FBI obtained a tip in Might 2023 from a consumer on Discord, a chat platform fashionable with on-line online game fanatics, about on-line threats to commit a capturing at a center college, in response to investigative paperwork.

The FBI traced the Discord account to an individual with the identical identify as the teenager’s father and referred the case to the sheriff’s division in Jackson County, the place the teenager was enrolled at Jefferson Center College, in response to the paperwork.

{The teenager} mentioned he wasn’t aware of Discord and didn’t play video video games. The teenager advised the sheriff’s workplace that he as soon as had a Discord account however had deleted it. The teenager denied making any on-line threats and “expressed concern that somebody is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a college, stating that he would by no means say such a factor, even in a joking method,” the paperwork state.

The native authorities in the end “cleared” the case as a result of the FBI tip was inconsistent with the knowledge found throughout their investigation, in response to the paperwork.

Among the many inconsistencies, in response to the paperwork, was that the Discord account was related to the teenager’s electronic mail deal with, however the telephone quantity on the account didn’t match the teenager’s.

The account was traced to a sequence of attainable IP addresses in Buffalo, New York, and in different components of Georgia, together with Fort Valley and Statesboro, the place the teenager had not lived, in response to the investigative report.

The e-mail related to the consumer’s profile identify was written in Russian and translated to the final identify of a college shooter. The teenager’s father advised an investigator that neither he nor his son spoke Russian, the report mentioned.

The teenager mentioned he was not lively on Discord on the time the risk was made and had stopped utilizing it as a result of his account had been hacked a number of occasions “and he was afraid somebody would use his data for nefarious functions,” in response to the report.

The legislation enforcement official advised the teenager’s dad that he couldn’t substantiate the tip from the FBI or that the daddy or son was behind the Discord account that made the risk. The case was then cleared, however Jackson County authorities “alerted native faculties for continued monitoring of the topic,” the FBI mentioned Wednesday.

It isn’t clear whether or not Barrow County faculties have been additionally conscious of the investigation or have been “monitoring” when the teenager enrolled there final month.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith mentioned Thursday that the teenager was new to Barrow County faculties, having enrolled two weeks in the past. Wednesday was his second day at Apalachee Excessive College and his first full day, Smith mentioned.

In an interview with NBC Information on Thursday, Smith mentioned the sheriff’s workplace discovered about final yr’s investigation on Wednesday, about two hours after the capturing.

Smith mentioned he was assured that the earlier ideas had been investigated correctly by the FBI and native legislation enforcement.

“Native authorities went to the home, interviewed him, interviewed his father, they did a report, they did what they have been alleged to do, and located that there was no correct trigger” to arrest him, Smith mentioned. “Whatever the scenario, all of us have civil rights. He didn’t commit a criminal offense. He made a remark. It was unfounded on the time.”

However Isaiah Hooks, 15, a soccer participant at the highschool mentioned it was tough to swallow information that some authorities have been conscious of and monitoring the teenager.

“It’s even tougher simply to consider, to simply accept, that any person that might have achieved this when the FBI knew who he was, that he was able to this. I misplaced my coach and classmates and associates who have been harm proper throughout from the room I used to be in,” Hooks mentioned. “I simply really feel like that particular person shouldn’t have been in a position to even be round a college. His risk ought to have been included in his transcript or one thing. This could have been prevented since they knew he may do one thing like this.”