Officials clarify how accused shooter brought gun to Apalachee High School, why he was able to leave class
Officials clarify how accused shooter brought gun to Apalachee High School, why he was able to leave class
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s FAQ page on the shooting was updated Thursday morning.
BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — Law enforcement officials in Georgia on Thursday published clarifying details about the shooting at Apalachee High School last week in which four people died and another nine were injured.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s FAQ page on the shooting was updated to include information about how the accused shooter, Colt Gray, brought a gun to school and why he was able to leave his class before carrying out the shooting.
According to the GBI, Colt Gray “brought the gun into the school on his own” in a backpack.
“The assault-style rifle could not be broken down, but Gray hid it in his backpack,” the updated FAQ page states.
That latter element has come under particular scrutiny, as it’s emerged in the days since the shooting that Gray’s mother, Marcee Gray, contacted the school roughly a half hour before the shooting began to warn that her son was having an “extreme emergency.”
According to AP reporting, a student previously said she saw Colt Gray briefly in the second-period algebra class, where she sat next to him, but that he left the room. The GBI now says on its FAQ page that Colt Gray “asked a teacher if he could go to the front office to speak with him,” but instead “went to the restroom and hid from teachers.”
“Later, he took out the rifle, and began shooting,” the GBI page states.
The Washington Post first reported the details of the morning of the shooting and Marcee Gray’s attempts to reach the school. She reportedly told a school counselor her 14-year-old son needed to be found immediately and that an administrator went to the algebra class looking for the teen, but he was not in the room; the administrator reportedly left with a bag that belonged to another student with a similar name.
CNN also previously reported, citing Colt Gray’s grandfather, that Marcee Gray received a text from Colt the morning of the shooting that said, “I’m sorry, mom.”
RELATED: Alleged Apalachee High shooter’s grandfather shares more insight into the Gray family dynamic
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