Staff searched for wrong student after frantic call from mother of alleged Georgia school shooter Colt Gray: report

Apalachee High School staff searched for the wrong student when they were warned that Colt Gray might be planning a school shooting — instead, they frantically searched for his classmate of the same name, Colton Gray.
The hunt began last Wednesday when Colt Gray’s mother called the Georgia high school to report receiving an alarming message from her troubled 14-year-old son.

Colt had already exited the room, allegedly loading the rifle he had smuggled into the school that day — but staff mistakenly rushed to find his classmate Colton Gray, who had also exited the room, officials told WSB-TV.
“They were in the same classroom and they were sitting next to each other,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said of the students with the same name, both 14.

Neither Colt Gray nor the other student were actually in the classroom when a school official searched the latter’s backpack, student Lyela Sayarath told The Washington Post of the confusing moments leading up to the shooting.

However, armed administrators were able to confront the shooter just one minute and six seconds after he opened fire, killing two students and two teachers, the sheriff said.

Just before the search, Colt Gray had asked to leave the room so he could go to the front desk, Smith said.

“He asked to come up front and talk to someone up front, and when you do that you take your stuff with you,” the sheriff explained.

The suspect was excused from class — and the school still had no idea he had an AR-style rifle hidden in his backpack, the sheriff said.

“He brought it in on his own,” Smith told WSB-TV. “It wasn’t hidden at school, it wasn’t given to him by someone else.”

The teenager was arrested and charged as an adult with four counts of murder.