‘You failed as a parent’: US father gets 15 years’ jail after giving teen son gun used in massacre
WASHINGTON, July 31 — A US father whose teenage son killed four people in a high school shooting was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday in a rare case involving a parent held criminally responsible for a child’s attack.
Colin Gray, 55, was convicted in March of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and other offences over the September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.
Gray’s son, Colt, then 14, used an AR-15-style rifle his father had given him as a Christmas present in 2023 despite warnings that the teenager had threatened to carry out a school shooting.
Colt, now 16, pleaded guilty to killing two 14-year-old students and two teachers, and injuring nine others, and was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison without parole.
Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm told Gray that he had failed to act despite warning signs.
“It is clear you failed as a parent,” Primm said during Gray’s sentencing hearing.
“You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter and you didn’t get him help and you didn’t remove his access to the guns,” the judge added.
School shootings remain a recurring crisis in the United States, where firearms outnumber people and access to powerful weapons remains a major debate.
Parental responsibility in such cases has come under greater scrutiny in recent years.
In 2024, Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first parents of a school shooter convicted of involuntary manslaughter over their child’s actions after their son killed four people at a Michigan high school in 2021.
They were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
Colin Gray is believed to be the first parent charged and convicted of murder over a shooting carried out by their child.
