Georgia suspect's mother reportedly called school before shooting, warning of 'emergency'

Sarah Blaskey and Teo Armus
| The Washington Post

The mother of the suspected Apalachee High School shooter told family members she called the school the morning of the shooting and alerted a counselor of an “extreme emergency” involving her 14-year-old son, according to text messages obtained by The Washington Post and an interview with a family member.

That account is corroborated by a call log from the family’s shared phone plan, which shows a 10-minute call from the mother’s phone to the school starting at 9:50 a.m. — about half an hour before witnesses said the gunman opened fire.

“I was the one who notified the high school counselor,” Marcee Gray wrote to her sister after the Sept. 4 shooting, according to a screenshot of the exchange. “I told them it was an extreme emergency and they needed to get (my son) immediately to check on him.”

A counselor told Gray during the call that his son had talked about the school shooting that morning, according to Gray’s sister, Annie Brown, who described family discussions about the events to The Post.

At the same time, a school administrator went to the son’s math class, according to Lyela Sayarath, a student in the class. Sayarath said there appeared to be a mix-up involving another student in the class with a name similar to Gray’s son. Neither student was in the room, and the official left with a backpack belonging to the student with the same name, she said. The shooting began minutes later.

Phone records, text messages and interviews provide the strongest evidence yet that Apalachee High School officials were alerted to concerns about the suspect the morning of the shooting and may have been searching for him in the minutes before he allegedly killed four people and wounded nine others with an AR-15-style rifle. The text messages also show that the school and family were in contact about his mental health a week before the shooting, and that Brown told a relative that the teen was having “homicidal and suicidal thoughts” at the time.

Barrow County School System Superintendent Dallas LeDuff did not respond to detailed questions from The Post and asked reporters to contact law enforcement. “Our focus right now is on healing our community and supporting our students during this incredibly difficult time,” he wrote in an email.

Marcee Gray declined to elaborate on what prompted her to notify the school, but she said she shared the information with law enforcement. She called the shooting “absolutely horrific” and expressed remorse for the students and parents affected.

“I am truly sorry and can’t imagine the pain and suffering they are going through right now,” Gray told The Post in a text message.

Representatives for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the agency overseeing the shooting investigation, and the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office declined to answer questions and referred The Post to the Piedmont Judicial District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Brad Smith did not respond to requests for comment.

The suspect, Colt Gray, is charged as an adult with four counts of murder. He appeared in court Friday but did not enter a plea.

The call log and text messages were provided to The Post by Brown, who said she administers the family’s cell phone plan.

The text messages Brown received about Gray alerting the school were sent from a phone belonging to their mother, the suspect’s grandmother, but Brown said Gray was the sender. The two refer to each other as “sister” in the exchange. A screenshot provided by Brown shows that the number that called the school that morning was registered in Brown’s phone as “Mar,” a shortened version of her sister’s name.

Brown said her sister called the school after learning something concerning about her son and feared “impending disaster.” Brown said in the interview that she did not know the details of what her sister learned or how.

Brown previously told the Post that her nephew spent months “begging” for mental health help and that the “adults around him failed him.” His struggles were complicated by a difficult home life, she said.

In December, the suspect’s mother pleaded guilty to domestic violence and was ordered to have limited contact with Colin Gray, her husband and the father of the alleged shooter, according to court documents. In 2022, the Grays were evicted from their home and the suspect’s mother and father were separated, according to law enforcement documents. The family also had contact with the Georgia Child Protective Services Agency, authorities said.

In May 2023, local law enforcement contacted the teen after receiving a tip from the FBI about online threats to carry out a school shooting, according to documents released by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. The teen denied making any such threats. Colin Gray told authorities at the time that he kept shotguns in the home and that his son was allowed to use them under supervision but did not have “unrestricted access.”

Colin Gray has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killings, as well as involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty. Authorities said he knowingly allowed his son to have the gun. The Post attempted to contact the father before his arrest Thursday but was unable to reach him.

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The week before the shooting, the teen’s grandmother, Deborah Polhamus, had met with a school counselor to seek help for him, the Post previously reported. He “starts seeing the therapist tomorrow,” Polhamus wrote in a text message to Brown after that meeting.

It is unclear whether the suspect attended that therapy session. Polhamus did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.

In an Aug. 29 message to a family member, Brown said she was optimistic about plans the family had made with the school to get her nephew into therapy. She also expressed concern about her nephew’s access to guns in the home.

“He has homicidal and suicidal thoughts, he should not have had a gun and he should have gotten therapy months ago,” Brown wrote. She added that she had tried to get him into therapy before without success.

After the Apalachee shooting, the suspect’s mother expressed frustration that the school failed to prevent the tragedy, text messages show. The time between her warning the counselor about her son and the first shots fired was “just a long time for them to intervene, so I’m curious what happened in that time,” she wrote to Brown, according to a screenshot of the message.

Sayarath, 16, who previously spoke to CNN about her experience, told the Post that she was in her second-period algebra class shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday morning when an administrator came to pick up not Colt Gray — Sayarath’s seatmate — but another student who was sitting nearby and had a similar name.

It is unclear what prompted the administrator’s visit and whether Marcee Gray’s call played a role.

The student had gone to the bathroom, the algebra teacher told the administrator, Sayarath said. The student’s red and black backpack was still in the classroom, and the administrator took it with her when she left.

At that time, Colt Gray was not in the classroom either. He had left, Sayarath said.

A short time later, the student with a similar name returned with his backpack in hand, Sayarath said. He told her that an adult in the hallway had asked him about a first-year teacher he hadn’t had and that he thought the adult might be looking for Colt Gray.

Shortly afterward, a voice came over the intercom asking the teacher to check her email, Sayarath said. The teacher walked over to her computer and then continued working on algebra problems. Moments later, Colt Gray approached the classroom, and the teacher said over the intercom, “Oh, he’s here,” Sayarath recalled.

Another student was about to open the door to let him in, but noticed he had a gun and backed away, alarmed, Sayarath said. The door was locked, and the armed teen was unable to enter the classroom. Sayarath heard the first shots seconds later.

Rabecca Sayarath, Lyela’s mother, drove to Apalachee as soon as she got a call from her daughter about the shooting.

That evening, at a news conference with law enforcement, Sayarath attempted to question her daughter’s account and made a number of assertions about the suspect’s behavior and the school’s response. Without being specific, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said she had “incorrect information.”

In an interview with the Post, she said she believed school officials were looking for the suspect and were furious that they didn’t take stronger action sooner. “You were looking for the kid … and you didn’t close the school when you found out he wasn’t in the classroom?” she said. “If they had closed the school, a lot of people might still be here.”

Armus reported from Winder, Georgia. Ian Shapira contributed reporting.