Father of accused Georgia school shooter testifies about hoping to bond
over guns and hunting
[February 28, 2026]
By JEFF MARTIN
ATLANTA (AP) — The father of an accused Georgia school shooter testified
in his own defense Friday that he gave his son a rifle as a Christmas
present in hopes of bonding with the boy over hunting and outings at the
gun range.
In one of the latest cases in which parents are being put on trial after
their children are accused in fatal shootings, defense lawyers called
Colin Gray to the witness stand. Prosecutors say he should be held
accountable for giving his son the weapon despite alleged threats and
warning signs that the boy was mentally unstable.
His son, Colt Gray, was 14 at the time of the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at
Apalachee High School in Winder, northeast of Atlanta. He faces 55
counts, including murder, in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of
aggravated assault. He’s accused of carefully planning the attack that
killed two teachers and two students and wounded several others.
The father faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder
and two counts of involuntary manslaughter.
The trial of Colin Gray, now ending its second week, has included
testimony from the boy's mother, Marcee Gray, who testified that she
urged her husband to lock up the guns so that their son could not access
them. But in the days before the school shooting, their son kept the gun
in his bedroom, witnesses testified at the father's trial.
The parents were separated for much of the time leading up to the
shooting, and Marcee Gray was not charged with any crimes.
Colin Gray became emotional Friday after being asked by his lawyer
whether there were any “red flags” that would have made him believe his
son was capable of a school shooting.
“No, I struggle with it every day,” he said, trying to hold back tears.
“He’s a good kid,” Gray added. “He wasn’t perfect, and nor was I. But to
do something that heinous, like I don’t know of anybody that can ever
see that kind of evil. Like the Colt I knew and the relationship I had —
there’s this whole other side of Colt I didn’t know existed.”
In a sometimes combative cross-examination, a prosecutor hammered Gray
on details he left out of conversations with social workers and others
who were checking up on his children. Multiple times, Gray responded
that he was struggling while “learning on the fly being a single parent
working full time just trying to get my feet under me.”
Even today, he said, he doesn't remember everything in the years leading
up to the shooting.
“I’m trying to still process what exactly happened with my son, and me
being locked up for it, so if I did not remember every single detail
that you are asking me at that point, that is my bad," he testified.
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District Attorney Brad Smith, left, points to a weapon that was
displayed on the screen during the first day of the trial of Colin
Gray, the father of Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colt
Gray, in the courtroom at the Barrow County courthouse, Monday, Feb.
16, 2026, in Winder, Ga. (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
via AP)
After being asked about his efforts to get his son into therapy,
Gray said “that’s not the only thing I had to worry about while I
had those kids.”
Gray took the stand a day after prosecutors showed surveillance
video of the morning of the shooting. The video shows his son
getting on a school bus with a backpack that prosecutors contend
carried the rifle. The weapon protruded from the backpack, and
poster board was used to conceal it, prosecutors have said.
In the video, he is seen entering the school with the backpack. He
walks down several hallways past dozens of students and some
employees who don’t take notice of the large size of the pack. He
then begins classes, and later that morning spends several minutes
in a bathroom moments before the shooting.
Video of the gunfire was played for jurors, but not shown to the
general public watching the livestream of the trial.
In dramatic testimony last week, several Georgia high school
students testified in court about being shot during their algebra
class. They recounted through tears seeing a classmate in a pool of
blood, then seeing blood on their own bodies and fearing they might
die.
There also has been testimony about what prosecutors describe as a
“shrine” to a Florida school shooter that Colt Gray kept on a wall
next to his computer at home.
He had an interest in Nikolas Cruz, convicted of the 2018 shooting
that left 14 students and three staff members dead at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Marcee Gray
testified this week.
Both sides in the case have now rested, and closing arguments are
set for Monday afternoon.
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