A 14-year-old boy was charged Thursday, September 5, with the murder of four people the day before at his high school in Georgia, in the southeastern United States, local authorities announced.
The suspect, Colt Gray, is accused of killing two teachers and two 14-year-old students like himself at Apalachee High School in Winder, about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta. The nine wounded in the attack are all “to fully recover”announced local sheriff Jud Smith during a press conference held Thursday night.
The Georgia State Bureau of Investigation (GBI), which announced that Colt Gray would be tried as an adult, said he would appear in court on Friday.
The GBI also announced the arrest and indictment of the teen’s father, including four counts of involuntary manslaughter. “This charge stems from the fact that Mr. Gray knowingly allowed his son Colt to possess a gun.”said GBI Director Chris Hosey at a news conference.
Citing anonymous sources, CNN previously reported that the weapon used on Wednesday was an AR-15 assault rifle (the name of which often appears in dramas of this kind) and had been offered by the teenager’s father as a gift to his son.
“We must hold parents accountable,” says Joe Biden
The question of the responsibility of the parents of juvenile perpetrators is becoming increasingly relevant. “How can you have an assault rifle at home, not locked up, and know that your son knows where it is?”President Joe Biden asked Thursday. “We must hold parents accountable for allowing their children to have access to these weapons”.
In April, the parents of a teenager who killed four students at his Michigan high school were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in prison, a first in the United States.
The US Federal Police (FBI) announced on Wednesday that it had issued a report in 2023 about Colt Gray, who had threatened online to carry out school shootings, backing up photographs of weapons. Following this report, the teenager was the subject of an investigation by law enforcement in a neighboring county of Winder, but denied being the author of the threats, while his father claimed that the young man did not have access to weapons in the house. . Local schools had also been notified so that they would be subject to increased surveillance. “At that time, there were no reasonable grounds for the arrest or for the authorities to take further action.”specifies the FBI in its press release.
Such shootings are common in the United States, where there are more guns than people and where regulations governing the purchase of weapons, including military ones, are relatively lax. Polls show that a majority of voters are in favour of tightening controls on the purchase and use of weapons, something that is opposed by the powerful gun lobby, the NRA.
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