Explained: The legal issues at the center of the Georgia school shooting case

The 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray, is being tried as an adult on four counts of felony murder in the Apalachee High School shooting earlier this month in Winder, Georgia. His father, Colin Gray, has also been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

This is the second case of its kind in the nation. In Michigan, James and Jennifer Crumbley were each found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year for the four students that their son killed during a shooting at Oxford High School.

The father and son both appeared in court for the first time on Sept. 6 at the Barrow County Courthouse. This is an ongoing investigation, and legal analysis in this article depends on information that is currently available.

What do the charges mean, and why is a 14-year-old being tried as an adult?

The charges against Colt Gray are of felony murder, which a person can be charged with regardless of intent to murder as long as they committed a felony that resulted in a person’s death.

Typically, cases involving someone under 17 years old in Georgia would be tried in juvenile court, but juveniles can be charged as an adult for certain crimes, according to Atlanta criminal defense attorney Amanda Clark Palmer.

Why has the suspect’s father been charged?

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the suspect’s father knowingly allowed his son to possess an AR platform-style weapon, which was the same gun the suspect used during the shooting.

Another charge against Colin Gray, the father, is of second-degree murder. According to Palmer, a person does not have to be present at the scene of the crime to be charged with second-degree murder. The state needs to show that the death occurred through an act of criminal negligence, demonstrating a willful or reckless disregard for the safety of others.

Other instances where parents have been charged with second-degree murder include child abuse cases. For instance, says Palmer, if one parent causes the death of a child through abuse, and the other parent is aware of the abuse but does not prevent it, the latter can be charged with second-degree murder.

The Winder case, however, is unprecedented in Georgia.

“It’s a novel prosecution, it’s unusual, it hasn’t happened before, and so this is one that a lot of people in the legal community are going to be watching,” she says.

According to Palmer, the involuntary manslaughter charge involves the person being charged with acting recklessly. In this case, she says, the reckless action would likely be the parent allowing his son to have an assault-style rifle after law enforcement had already notified him of a threat that his son allegedly made toward the school.

In May 2023, the FBI received anonymous tips about threats made online containing photos of guns to commit a school shooting. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office determined that Colt Gray was a potential suspect and interviewed him and his father. Colt Gray denied making threats. Though Colin Gray said he had hunting guns in the home, he said his son did not have unsupervised access to the guns.

However, Palmer adds that just based on information that is publicly available about the father and his role, it could be difficult to prove that the father acted recklessly, especially since the FBI determined at the time that there was no probable cause for arrest or further action from law enforcement. In Georgia, there is no minimum legal age for possessing a rifle or shotgun, and there are no state laws regulating the sale or possession of assault weapons.

Can the suspect be charged under Georgia’s domestic terrorism law?

It is possible that he could be charged under Georgia’s domestic terrorism law.

Though he hasn’t been charged yet, the Barrow County grand jury can still add or take away charges that he faces, according to Palmer.

Can Apalachee High School be held liable?

According to the Washington Post, the suspect’s mother, Marcee Gray, called the school around 30 minutes before the shooting took place and warned a school counselor about an “extreme emergency” involving her son. Then, a school administrator went to Colt Gray’s classroom, but misidentified the student and took the backpack of another student with a similar name.

According to personal injury lawyer and civil rights lawyer Mark Begnaud, government actors “enjoy a broad range of ‘immunities,’ making it difficult or impossible to hold them civilly liable.”

The alleged conduct, he writes in a statement to WABE, “does not typically make out a constitutional violation.”

“Generally speaking, constitutional claims in this context only apply to ‘deliberate deprivations of substantive due process rights,’ so that a single act of negligence may not form the basis of a civil rights claim,” he writes. “The facts as reported reflect what is, at the very most, a single act of negligence, which generally cannot form the basis for a civil rights claim for an assault by one student against others.”

However, Begnaud adds that if facts emerge showing a pattern of negligence, “if school officials were repeatedly and deliberately indifferent to obvious threats of violence, for example,” then a federal claim could be possible. “But nothing in the reporting I have seen comes anywhere near this level of indifference, so a federal claim is unlikely,” he says.

“In Georgia, schools have ‘sovereign immunity,’ which means they cannot be sued unless there is a specific law which is a ‘waiver’ of sovereign immunity,” he adds. “Here, there is no such waiver of sovereign immunity, so there would be no state law claim against the school, school board, or school district.”

As for the school administrator who searched the wrong backpack, they could theoretically be held liable, but it would be a “low-probability claim that would face an uphill legal battle.”

Begnaud says a school employee has “official immunity” under Georgia law, meaning that if they did not do anything with “actual malice,” they can only be sued if they were negligent in performing a “ministerial” duty, which is “simple, absolute, and definite action that requires the execution of a specific task.” They cannot be sued for performing a “discretionary” act, which “calls for the exercise of personal deliberation and judgment.”  

Though the administrator could be held civilly liable for resulting injuries and deaths if they were found in violation of a ministerial duty, it’s not likely, since responding to threats is an act that requires discretion. According to Begnaud, Georgia courts have dismissed claims around actions such as supervising student safety, determining and responding to hazards on school property and creating a safety plan.

“For there to be a viable claim against the administrator, therefore, there would need to be a specific duty — like a provision within the school’s policies, or a provision within a school or school district safety plan — requiring specific behavior in response to the reported threat,” he adds. “If the administrator here violated such a duty, there could be the potential for liability.”

What’s next?

Colt and Colin Gray’s lawyers declined to seek bail. In Georgia, those held in jail without bond will need to be indicted by a grand jury within 90 days of the arrest or else they will be entitled to a bond, with exception being death penalty cases. 

Editor’s Note: This article was updated to specify the county in which District Attorney Brad Smith serves.