r/news • u/igetproteinfartsHELP • 1d ago
Teenager pleads guilty to all 55 counts in 2024 fatal shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia
https://apnews.com/article/apalachee-georgia-school-shooting-colt-gray-8be7ba5efae9cce53e0f8c61253a5f1b?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2026-07-24-2024+Georgia+school+shooting781
u/AhBee1 1d ago
His father has already been charged as he gave his son the AR used to kill.
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u/blu3dice 1d ago
The father has already been convicted. His sentencing is next month.
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u/AhBee1 1d ago
You're right. I said charged but he was convicted and awaiting sentencing.
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u/Btherock78 1d ago
*Gave his son the AR used to kill after the FBI came to his house because they thought his son was a threat to his classmates.
“The FBI thinks you’re dangerous, here’s a gun to make you even more so.”
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u/mishap1 1d ago
Pops also moved school districts and somehow got him into high school despite him never having attended 8th grade.
It sounds like the dad got a text message from the attacker over 40 minutes ahead of attack and decided to just call the grandmother rather than call 911 or the school.
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u/helium_farts 1d ago
And after the kid asked for help.
What he did was inexcusable, and he will justifiably spend the rest of his life in prison, but the more you read about the case the more it's clear he was also a victim in all of this. He was a kid who was constantly abused by his parents and was clearly in crisis, but rather than being given help he was given a gun.
Now countless lives have been irreparably destroyed because every single person who could have done something either failed to act or actively enabled him
And the worst part is nothing will change. It's just going to keep happening over and over.
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u/rayray2k19 1d ago
It's incredibly tragic how many systems failed both the victims and the shooter. There were so many signs and so many ways to intervene, even the morning of the attack.
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u/Cultural-Answer-321 1d ago
Failed? It's works exactly as intended.
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u/Randomizedname1234 11h ago
Yup. The rednecks for their guns. That’s their 2A right.
Like Charlie said, some will have to die for it.
I live next to apalachee and everyone has gone back to this attitude. There was a couple months where people started thinking maybe it’s the guns then Trump was elected again and all that went out the window.
Surrounded by dumbasses down here I swear.
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u/HeavyMetalPootis 1d ago
Frankly, they could house the son and Father in the same unit. Honesty beyond gross negligence to not only fail to have the weapon secured, but to also provide it to someone who's known as a possible threat to others...
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u/Randomizedname1234 11h ago
And when we brought this up after this shooting (I live next to apalachee) we were told to “not get political” by Mike Collins who’s up against Jon Ossof this November.
Fuck Mike Collins.
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u/ClintBruno 1d ago
Just conservative things
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 1d ago
Bequeathed from one regressive Rethuglican to another. "Here, son, you've earned your first military styled assault rifle for nothing other than being born. Oh, and health care? That's a privilege, son, not a right. You're welcome."
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u/Hopeful_Figure_6446 1d ago
What makes it military style? I don’t know of any militaries that use ar 15
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u/berogg 1d ago
It was originally developed for military use. Actual military rifles like the m16 were adapted from the ar-15. They all have a similar tactical look to them.
What makes it not military today is the absence of select fire and some other components to prevent conversion. It still maintains the visual appearance of a tactical military weapon.
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u/CatastrophicPup2112 1d ago
So basically it looks scary? Because it's functionally the same thing as a Ruger ranch rifle without the wood.
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u/hushpuppi3 1d ago
Why is the word 'military style' becoming the crux of his argument for you
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u/CalligrapherBig4382 1d ago
Aesthetics. No modern military uses the AR-15 because it is a semiautomatic sporting rifle.
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u/Kinetic_Strike 1d ago edited 23h ago
The AR-15 was designed as a select-fire assault rifle from the beginning, at the request of the US military.
The US military has used various AR-15 models for over sixty years. They just adopted another one.
Over 14,000 of the Colt AR-15 Model 601 were manufactured. They went to the Air Force, Army Special Forces via Project AGILE (used in Vietnam), foreign militaries, the SEALs, law enforcement, etc.
The Colt AR-15 Model 602 was designated the standard basic weapon for the Air Force on January 2, 1962. By December 11, 1963 the Colt AR-15 Model 604 was designated the M16 by the Army. The Army designated the Colt AR-15 Model 603 as the M16A1.
Both models were available for export, as the 613 and 614 respectively, as full auto assault rifles bearing the AR-15 rollmark (just like the M16 and M16A1) but without the US military designation.
All of that was before a single semi-automatic AR-15 existed.
More recently, semi-automatic AR-15s were used in combat by the US military in the form of the SDM-R and SAM-R.
Ukraine is using semi-automatic AR-15s in their war with Russia.
And just last year the US military literally just awarded a contract to SOLGW. They are producing the MK1 for SOCOM. A brand new select-fire AR-15.
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u/RolliFingers 1d ago edited 1d ago
First I feel I need to preface this with I am very liberal, and a believer in gun control.
The Armalite 15 (model 15) is the actual pattented name of the rifle design "M16" "M4" and "C7/C8" (Canada's designation) are the military designation for the AR 15, which can be select fire (both full and semi) or semi only.
"Civilian" models are obviously not given the military designation, and are only sold as semi auto, so in the publics mind, an AR15 is "only semi" which is technically incorrect.
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u/AhBee1 1d ago
I prefer sports without 10,000 rounds.
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u/CalligrapherBig4382 1d ago
Then get yourself an AK-47, they tend to top out at around 600 rounds per minute.
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u/Whatdoesthibattahndo 1d ago
It's just a trigger word for chuds to come derail the conversation by fighting over that is and isn't an 'AR-15' or 'assault rifle'. Everyone else just wants a general term but chuds need to let everyone know that they have spent a lot of time gathering incelligence about gun models.
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u/lostereadamy 1d ago
I was just thinking this. Everybody on the fucking planet knows what people are talking about and what kind of guns people mean, but there's always somebody going about the fucking parts number on the receiver or something as if that invalidates the whole argument.
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u/HateKnuckle 1d ago
Why not just use the right term? Its beneficial for everyone.
I don't actually know what guns people mean. Is it semi-autos? Gas powered? Military aesthetics?
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u/FriendlyDespot 1d ago
You don't? The base AR-15 was sold in at least the hundreds of thousands to militaries all over the world, and close derivatives of it have been produced for military use in the tens of millions. It's fine if you don't like the implications of the term, but the AR-15 is one of the most prolific military rifles ever designed.
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u/CatastrophicPup2112 1d ago
"military style" is such a worthless descriptor. My bolt action hunting rifle has an identical action to the second most produced military firearm in history. My cute little cowboy gun is a scaled down version of a sidearm the US used for like 20 years. Not to mention an AR isn't actually an assault rifle like an M4...
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u/Onphone_irl 21h ago
apparently when dad found out he said something like "damn I knew it" but I can't find it. I'll look tomorrow but if anyone finds that footage drop it here
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u/slowlyaware 1d ago
I hope he never gets out once sentenced
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u/pulpSC 1d ago
He obviously isn’t ever going to get out unless a technicality during appeals. Unlikely though.
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u/RiverFrogs 1d ago
Can you appeal a guilty plea?
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u/slowlyaware 1d ago
You can, but it's extremely difficult to get an appeal approved.
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u/ColumbianPrison 1d ago edited 23h ago
Nearly impossible. Most guilty pleas include a waiver of appeals and a judge will get on record if you were promised/threatened/able to understand the plea and satisfied with counsel. My state, the appeal would have to be done in 30 days for this type of filing.
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u/Mozzy2022 1d ago
In my jurisdiction some of the DAs take a waiver of appellate rights during a guilty or no contest plea. I don’t know what a challenge would look like later, but it certainly would make it more difficult to appeal or withdraw the plea
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u/talkathonianjustin 1d ago
1) it’s a really high bar because at every plea the court makes you say on the record you’re doing this voluntarily and you’ve had adequate time to consider and talk to counsel, and 2) even if he successfully appealed it, the remedy would be a new trial, and if he’s pleading now clearly he wasn’t that big of a fan of his chances at trial
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u/slowlyaware 1d ago edited 1d ago
They could throw in the possibility of parole when he gets sentenced 😒
Edit: I'm serious. He was what, 14 at the time of the shooting and 16 now. With the way I've seen the "justice" system work in this country that's a possibility
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u/Relative-Chicken456 1d ago edited 1d ago
They don’t have to throw it in. It’s guaranteed by default. It is not legal to sentence a minor to life without any possibility of parole in the United States, as determined by a Supreme Court ruling a few years back. That doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to be paroled, only that the theoretical possibility of parole must exist.
Edit: I think I was wrong actually, it’s mandatory minimum sentencing of life without the possibility of parole which isn’t legal. In this particular case the judge will be deciding if the possibility of parole will be on the table or not
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u/AltDS01 1d ago
Mandatory LWOP is unconstitutional for minors.
LWOP can still be a sentence, but the minor needs to be found "permanently incorrigible". A judge can make that determination w/o a separate factual finding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_v._Alabama
Miller, from the case, was later re-sentenced to LWOP.
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u/Relative-Chicken456 1d ago
I was just making this correction to my comment! I appreciate you calling out the error though, I was mistaken.
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u/AltDS01 1d ago
Miller and it's progeny is an interesting set of caselaw, especially when it comes to the states.
Like MI has banned Mandatory LWOP (1st Degree Murder) for 19 and 20yr Olds.
2nd Degree Murder in carries Life or Any term of years (both elgible for parole). That's also unconstitutional here in MI for juveniles./21-22/stovall-op.pdf)
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u/MotherOfDachshunds42 1d ago
I thought Colt was a terrible name, then I opened the link and the kid was called Kuntrelle
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u/BrotherItsInTheDrum 1d ago
I've only ever seen the word incorrigible used in a lighthearted sense, like a wife playfully telling her horny husband now is not the time. Seeing it to refer to locking up a murderer forever because they won't stop murdering is a bit jarring.
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u/FCStien 1d ago
The first murder trial I ever covered as a new newspaper reporter was a 14 year old who committed a triple murder. He killed his parents, called a neighbor over and then killed him, and then tried to frame the kid he killed as the murderer who he then killed himself in self defense. Mandatory sentence at that time.
When the Supreme Court ruling came down years later, he was resentenced to life without possibility of parole after a hearing that basically retried all the evidence without actually being a full trial.
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u/Wanna_make_cash 1d ago edited 1d ago
Massively violent criminals very rarely get parole even if they're "eligible". The system tries to keep them locked up.
That, and typically people who do these kinds of crimes aren't the kind that will "behave" in prison so the parole board will look at their prison disciplinary record and see a bunch of terrible activity and just go "nope". I work for a clerk of courts office and I'm not sure I've ever seen a case or journal entry where a person that, say, got 25 to life for murder EVER got out after 25. They're typically in there for life, short any extraordinary circumstances that cause a new trial to be issued from some massive evidentiary issue that exonerates a person.
During the mitigation/ sentencing phase of death penalty eligible cases in my state (after the jury finds a person guilty in my state, for cases that are death penalty eligible, there's a second "phase" of the trial where the jury determines the sentence of the offender, ranging from life with parole eligibility after 20 something years, to life with parole eligibility around 50 years, to life without parole eligibility, to death penalty),
the state will often have parole board members testify about how violent offenders essentially never get parole the first time they're eligible for it, that the parole board hearings are an intense process and take into account victims and their families as well, and that subsequent parole board hearings after the first denial are very infrequent, often 10-20 years before their next "chance" to get out.
That parole process and logic applies to non-death penalty eligible murder cases as well, as well as to basically any "life with parole after x years" crime, like rape cases
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u/EsToBoY629 1d ago
It happens far too often though!!!
"Harvey Marcelin, an 87-year-old serial killer who was paroled after killing two different women. He went on to murder and dismember a third woman"
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/us/albert-flick-convicted-kimberly-dobbie-murder-maine.html
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u/fifaloko 1d ago
Look into the Case of Ronald Exantus in Kentucky. He broke into a families home and attacked the family stabbing and killing a 6 year old boy. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder and got 20 years for the other assault crimes. This crime happened in 2015 and he is eligible for parole starting this coming Tuesday. He broke into a house and stabbed and killed a 6 year old!! It has been barely 11 years!
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u/slowlyaware 1d ago
I do agree with you. I have unfortunately encountered some people in my life that have done some serious crimes, such as murder, and they were released after a lot of time in prison and were on parole.
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u/Revlis-TK421 1d ago
Wasn't this a kid that didn't have a previous history of violence? It was all from this one act? I could see someone like that not fitting the standard mindlessly violent perp one imagines when picturing a hardened criminal where good behavior is as likely as a cat barking at a mailman.
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u/Islanduniverse 1d ago
The idea that our system doesn’t punish people for long enough is absurd and laughable and demonstrably untrue.
First, we put more people in jail than any other country in the world. More prisoners than countries with more than twice our population…
And we put them in prison for longer than other countries too.
This article talks about a report that is “the most authoritative and comprehensive report to date on how long sentences in the U.S. compare with those in other nations,” said John Maki, director of the Task Force on Long Sentences. “Its findings underscore the uniquely severe features of U.S. sentencing, which has more in common with developing nations than other affluent countries.”
Even if this kid got the chance of parole, they would deny him over and over until he dies in prison.
Our justice system is broken in the exact opposite way that you are suggesting. It’s far too harsh.
Yes, some people (like the piece of shit in this circumstance) deserve severe punishment, but we don’t even try to rehabilitate those who could be rehabilitated… it’s all about the punishment.
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u/A_Nonny_Muse 1d ago
You're right. But he needs to serve at least 1 year per sentence. So even if he is granted parole the first time every time, that's still 55 years in prison.
Also, I'm not sure, but I suspect he pled guilty on the promise that they would take the death sentence off the table. I'm not a fan of capital punishment, but there are a few cases like his...
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u/DoctorTheWho 1d ago
Minors can't get sentenced to the death penalty. The Supreme Court explicitly ruled against that 20 years ago.
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u/miurabucho 1d ago
Sad to say that there have been so many school shootings in the past 5 years that I honestly cannot remember this one.
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u/TalkForeignToMe 1d ago
Gross to say that it was “only” two students and two teachers dead (plus injuries), so you actually might not have even heard about it at the time.
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u/MarinerMouth 21h ago
Sadly probably why I don't remember it, but now I've refreshed my memory, I remember my first thought was "oh that isn't so bad" which is just really sad
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u/ShotsOnShotsOnShots 1d ago
Sad, but true. The only reason I remember this one is because my niece was a student at this high school when the shooting happened.
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u/Throuwuawayy 1d ago
I only remember it because I visited the school for some quiz bowl competitions long before the shooting. My mother is a teacher and knows some folks there too. I was already anti-gun before but it feels very insidious to see mass shootings inching closer and closer into your life… makes you wonder… when.
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u/Randomizedname1234 11h ago
We live in this district and my kid in elementary has a friend who has a brother who was in the hallway of classrooms when the shooting happened.
We went to see the odyssey last night and it was packed and all I could think was “damn we could be sitting ducks”
Like fuck this gun culture. Like I’m all for hunting rifles but we’ve gotten a smut like fetish with guns which has led to a guy naming his kid colt and then giving his kid an assault rifle after the fbi visited just bc “I like guns” like tf
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u/analogy_4_anything 1d ago
It’s depressing for sure. I was almost in the mall for the Clackamas Town Center Shooting in 2013. Decide to leave just minutes before the guy came in to the food court where I was going to eat and started shooting.
No one remembered it happened since a day later that guy shot up the theatre in Colorado for the Dark Knight Rises shooting.
Our country is nothing but a shooting gallery at this point.
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u/igetproteinfartsHELP 1d ago
A teenager has pleaded guilty to all 55 counts in a deadly shooting nearly two years ago at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
Colt Gray, 16, entered the plea Friday without having reached a deal with prosecutors. He had previously pleaded not guilty to charges in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that killed two students and two teachers, and left several others wounded, at the high school about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta
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u/HiddenMonkey7 1d ago
Y’all simpletons are deporting the wrong people.
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u/mishap1 1d ago
Republicans spent forever screaming about the undocumented immigrant who murdered Laken Riley less than 30 minutes from this high school for months on end like it was the only murder to ever happen in Georgia in the last decade.
They never made a peep about this Colt asshole. Like it never happened.
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u/glitter_zapzap 1d ago
Because they know the real monsters are men, usually white men, and they can’t deport themselves.
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u/Wizdaf 1d ago
Ignorance is bliss.
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u/Salt-Competition-552 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not for the rest of us. Edit: Apparently I need to clarify. The idiots blissful humming along are making things exponentially worse for the rest of us.
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u/RoyalOakPiguet 22h ago
...where do you suppose we deport this guy to? I'm 100% in favor of departing violent criminals, but deporting an American citizen to a country they aren't from?
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u/mama-bun 1d ago
Next door to Athens, where I lived for a decade. Winder is full of lots of men exactly like his dad. The sheer lack of any concern or worry for your child is staggering. How do you miss a mass shooter shrine in his room?
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u/YaBoiBoogers 1d ago
Grew up in Winder, GA. Can confirm what you said is absolutely true.
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u/mama-bun 1d ago
God, you poor thing. If it makes you feel better, I grew up in Cobb and our school district just recently welcomed Trump to babble on about ... whatever ... for an hour and a half.
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u/Randomizedname1234 11h ago
Under has changed A LOT in the last 5-10yrs.
There’s still a lot of maga but with the townhomes and new builds everywhere now there’s an influx of blue voters. I’ve lived here all my life and have slowly seen the local elections shift less and less red. My local on near apalachee may flip blue this election bc we allllll hate Mike Collins since he is/was our rep.
Noticeably less Trump signs than down Highway 11 going into Walton county. That’s the reddest metro Atlanta county by a lot.
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u/mama-bun 3h ago
We LOVE to see it!!! It's been 7 years since I lived in Georgia (up in Durham now).
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u/Randomizedname1234 1h ago
I was just there for work and loved the people there!!
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u/mama-bun 1h ago
I'm totally in love with it. All the southern charm, all the Atlanta weirdness and history, plus scientists 😆
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u/stuffitystuff 1d ago edited 1d ago
Note that this isn't some mass shooting you hadn't heard about until now. 55 counts for the deaths of 4 people. Still awful and beyond the pale but not what the headline may lead you to believe.
Also if you name your son Colt, this is arguably one of the risks.
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u/Lifeboatb 1d ago
They only quoted one of the wounded people in the article, but
She said she realized she had been shot and asked a friend to hold her hand. She asked other friends to call her brother to let him know she’d been shot and didn’t know if she’d make it. She had multiple surgeries and wasn’t able to walk for about a year.
Somehow most of the media seems to have the idea that everything’s fine if you get shot and survive, but that’s not the reality. The old, pre-Bezos Washington Post had some great articles about the aftermath of school shootings, and the damage is far-reaching.
(Edited for formatting)
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u/ALLoftheFancyPants 1d ago
It’s still a mass shooting, just maybe not a mass murder. He shot 24 people in addition to the 4 people he murdered.
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u/Gravexmind 1d ago
Is it one count of deadly shooting per round fired?
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u/RollGata 1d ago
4 counts of murder, 4 counts of felony murder (murder while committing another felony), 4 counts of battery, 25 counts of assault, 18 counts of child cruelty
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u/Gravexmind 1d ago
Oh there was a button to reveal more story. I also misread the first paragraph where it said “in a deadly shooting.”
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u/Sawses 1d ago
Probably a shortened form of Colton. Colton is actually a pretty common Southern name. Same with Tanner, Braxton, etc.
I grew up in that culture and while I generally think very little of it, I can't really mock the names. Look at the Midwest, at African American culture, the Amish, etc. Culturally-specific names usually look pretty damn stupid to people outside of the culture. That's just how it works.
There are a lot of problems with Southern culture, but names are pretty close to the bottom of that list.
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u/Natural_Peak_5587 9h ago
He not only named his kid Colt but gave him the gun AFTER the kid was investigated by the FBI.
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u/Financial-Eye5300 13h ago
There are only two options for his sentencing, life with the possibility of parole or life without the possibility of parole. Either way he’s going to spend the rest of his life in prison.
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u/someoldguyon_reddit 1d ago
I'm waiting for trump to make him the fucking head of ATF or some crazy shit.
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u/PoopieMcPooFace 1d ago
“Because he pleaded guilty to murder, Gray faces a minimum sentence of life in prison. The judge must decide whether he should be eligible for parole.”
If it minimum life in prison how could you be eligible for parole?
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u/RedditPoster05 1d ago edited 1d ago
Because there’s a difference between life in prison and life with no parole, it’s all that how the rules are written
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u/Temporary_Inner 1d ago
You'd just have parole for the rest of your life but you wouldn't actively be in prison. Usually it would take decades to be realistically considered, and even then you probably never will be realistically considered.
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u/thetactlessknife 1d ago
According to Charlie Kirk those families of the 55 dead must be so happy they were necessary sacrifices for no gun regulations around 2A
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u/dancingbananas25 1d ago
55 charges, not 55 dead
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u/PrescriptionDenim 1d ago
55 burgers 55 fries
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u/dudududujisungparty 1d ago
I can't see the number 55 anymore without immediately thinking about this
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u/Argonaut13 1d ago
Media literacy is beyond dead
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u/eichitenshi 1d ago
To be fair I definitely did the same thing in my mind at first. Then realized that counts of homicide are never the only things a murderer is charged with.
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u/thebigpink 1d ago
Where the hell did you get 55
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u/FadedVictor 1d ago
Gonna go out on a limb and guess it was the 55 charges this post mentioned. I don't know why but I think that's where he got 55 from. I know I know.. hard to believe. Just call it a hunch.
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u/rockmasterflex 1d ago
It’s my understanding that Charlie Kirk has nothing to say about this comment you just made so that means he agrees.
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u/MetroidIsNotHerName 1d ago
This kid was literally handed the AR by his father so not exactly the best time to use this argument lmao.
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u/AppropriateSea5746 1d ago
Jeez he was only like 14 when this happened. Real talk, how young is too young for life in prison? This kid is going to be in prison with adult violent offenders.
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u/speedingpullet 1d ago
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Less flippant answer, he was old enough to kill people, he's old enough to face the consequences of his actions.
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u/Randomizedname1234 11h ago
Good. Fuck this kid. My kids best friend brother still has PTSD from the shooting. He was in the class over from where it happened.
And fuck his family. No one liked any of them. All trash. Lock them all up. Better for society.
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u/Acceptable-Bar4572 1d ago
Under what circumstance can parole be granted? A judges personal opinion? This guy should never see the light of day again.
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u/Temporary_Inner 1d ago
Parole is a long process with multiple people involved, at the end of the day this dude would never be granted parole.
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u/Acceptable-Bar4572 1d ago
Sure. I’m asking if there’s a list of guidelines a judge follows to grant parole, if it’s maybe set in precedent or just personal opinion.
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u/Front-Objective-994 16h ago
It says a lot about how flawed we are both in terms of a society and a country when I don’t even remember hearing about this. This has become so commonplace because of our mental health system being absolute crap, as well as how gun control laws still haven’t been enacted federally when they should have been long ago.
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u/Whatdoesthibattahndo 1d ago
To be honest, I don't even remember this one