The mother of a Georgia teenager accused of killing two teachers and two classmates in a shooting last week has apologized to the victims’ families in an open letter that also said her son “is not a monster.”
Marcee Gray wrote that she would “never forgive herself for what has happened” in the letter she provided to CNN.
Gray called Apalachee High School just before 10 a.m. on September xx, 30 minutes before Colt Gray opened fire, to warn them of an “extreme emergency” regarding her son, as CrimeOnline reported.
The 14-year-old had already left his second period algebra class when his mother called the school. He returned a few minutes later, after going to a resetroom and retrieving the AR-15 rifle his father gave him for Christmas from his backpack. but the door was locked. So he went to a classroom next door and killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.
Eight other students and another teacher were wounded.
“To the parents and families of those affected by the tragic events at Apalachee High School, I want to say that I am so sorry from the bottom of my heart,” Marcee Gray wrote in her letter, according to CNN.
“If I could take the place of Mason and Christian, I would without a second thought,” she wrote. “As a parent, I’ve always said that the loss of one of my children would be the only thing that I wouldn’t be able to come back from. I feel all of your pain and devastation. I grieve and cry with you.”
She also wrote that her “heart breaks for the 2 teachers who gave their lives while in the service of teaching and protecting our children.”
“My son Colt is not a monster,” she said. “He is my oldest baby. He is quiet, thoughtful, caring, funny, and extremely intelligent. Please pray for him and the rest of our family, as I am praying for all of you every moment of every day.”
Although Barrow Count Sheriff Jud Smith has said there were no warnings of any threat, Marcee Smith spoke with a school counselor for about 10 minutes in her phone call prior to her son opening fire. She told ABC that the counselor told her one of Colt Gray’s teachers had sent an email to the counselor that morning to say that the boy had been “making references to school shootings.
According to CBS News, Colt Gray concealed the rifle in his backpack and rode to school on a bus that morning, investigators said Thursday. He left his class after getting permission to go to the front office but instead went to the bathroom. Meanwhile, he sent the “I’m sorry” message to his mother and also to his father, Colin Gray.
The Grays were separated at the time and the accused killer was living with his father.
Colt Gray has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder. His father, who gave him the rifle as a gift seven months after police visited the pair investigating threats made online, has been charged with two counts of murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of child cruelty. Both are being held without bond.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Marcee Gray/Facebook and Colt Gray/Georgia Bureau of Investigation]
