Heartbreaking 3-word text 14-year-old school shooting suspect 'sent his mom minutes before fatal attack'

The 14-year-old alleged shooter at Apalachee High School reportedly sent his mom a harrowing three-word text just minutes before the attack.

Credit: Barrow County Sheriff's Office

On September 4, police responded to the school following reports of an active shooter.

The victims at the school in Winder, Barrow County included two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Christina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall.

Colt Gray, 14, was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack and is expected to be tried as an adult.

Nine others were injured during the shooting. According to CNN, Gray allegedly surrendered when confronted by a school resource officer.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith stated that after his arrest, Gray confessed to investigators, saying: "I did it."

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In the aftermath, troubling details about the days and moments leading up to the shooting have come to light. The Washington Post reported that Gray sent a message apologizing to his mother, Marcee, before the shooting, prompting her to urgently call the school.

Charles Polhamus, Gray’s maternal grandfather, told The Post that his daughter was at his house when she received the message, which allegedly said, "I’m sorry, mom."

Marcee called the school to alert staff of an "extreme emergency" and later told her sister: “I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school. I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”

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It was later revealed that the FBI had interviewed Gray in May 2023 following anonymous reports of someone making "online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time."

Gray, interviewed with his father, denied making the threats, and no arrests were made at that time.

The FBI issued a statement saying: "The father stated that he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them [...] At the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels."

Colt Gray’s father, Colin Gray, has also been arrested in connection with the shooting and faces charges including "four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children," according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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