Shackled before grieving relatives, father, son face judge in Georgia school shooting

WINDER, Georgia – A crocheted child's doll. Tear-soaked tissues. Clasped fingers.

More than a dozen family members and victims sat as silent but emotional witnesses Friday as accused Georgia school shooter Colt Gray, 14, and his father, Colin Gray, 54, appeared separately in the same leather chair inside the Barrow County courtroom to hear the charges they face.

Colt Gray is accused of killing two schoolmates and two teachers at rural Apalachee High School on Wednesday. And in a reflection of a growing national trend, Colin Gray has been charged as an accessory – accused of improperly giving his son access to the AR-15-type rifle police say he used to attack the school about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. Prosecutors say this is the first time in Georgia history that a parent of a school shooting suspect has been charged in connection with such an attack.

Killed on Wednesday were students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Eight students and one teacher were also injured, according to investigators.

Neither Colt nor Colin Gray said more than a few words during their short hearings, held five miles from the school. Neither did they look behind them at the assembled family members. Colt Gray, who appeared in court first, intermittently shook his shaggy, brass-colored hair out of his eyes.

Friday morning, schools across the county remained closed and a memorial of flowers and candles grew near the school's entrance sign and the Georgia flag flew at half-staff. A handful of mourners had gathered around the flagpole early in the morning, but left by the time the hearings began.

"You don't have to have been physically injured in this to be a victim," District Attorney Brad Smith said after the hearing concluded. "Everyone in this community is a victim. Every child in that school is a victim... I feel the weight of all of that."

Clad in dark green clothing from the Regional Youth Detention Center in Gainesville, Georgia, Colt Gray's small frame was swallowed by the chair as he sat, hands shackled to his waist, accompanied by a public defender. He answered, "Yes, sir," several times in response to questions from Judge Currie M. Mingledorff II, including whether he could read and write English and whether he understood the nature of the charges against him and the possible penalties.

Colin Gray, the boy's grey-haired father, told the judge he'd finished 11th grade and earned his GED. At more than 6-feet, Colin Gray hunched over and rocked back and forth in the same chair that dwarfed his son's frame minutes earlier. Also shackled and wearing a gray-and-white striped Barrow County Detention Center jumpsuit, his feet slid into orange plastic jail slippers, Colin Gray appeared to sniffle several times and his voice sounded choked as he answered Mingledorff's questions alongside his own public defender.

Colin Gray faces two counts of murder in the second degree, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children in the second degree, under a relatively new Georgia law that lets prosecutors charge adults for allowing minors to suffer "cruel or excessive physical or mental pain."

Colt Gray has been charged with four felony murder counts that would make an adult defendant eligible for the death penalty. After his appearance in court concluded, Colt Gray was briefly brought back before Mingledorff so the judge could clarify that as a minor, the maximum punishment Colt Gray could face in adult court would be life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Neither Colt nor Colin Gray requested a bond hearing, and both remain in custody.

After the hearing, Smith, the district attorney, said a grand jury would consider additional charges against Colt Gray, who was arrested before investigators had even determined how many other people were injured.

"There will be additional charges on Colt Gray," Smith explained. "When he was taken into custody on Wednesday, we did not have the identities or the conditions of the other victims so we were not able to charge on those offenses. ... When (those survivors) have a chance to heal physically, emotionally and spiritually, we will get with them."

Family members who attended Friday's hearings did not speak with reporters and were seated separately from the public during the hearing.

Contributing: Eve Chen, USA TODAY.