Georgia officers interviewed Apalachee High School shooting suspect in 2023, could not substantiate threat
The FBI passed a tip about an online threat to shoot up a middle school to Jackson County investigators, who in 2023 interviewed the suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting.
Jackson County, Georgia, officers in 2023 spoke face-to-face with the boy who is now charged with felony murder in the deaths of four at Apalachee High School in Winder on Wednesday.
The sheriff's officers described their interactions in a detailed investigation report from May 21, 2023, when suspect Colt Gray was 13 years old, after being tipped off by the FBI about a threat on the messaging app Discord of a threat to shoot up a middle school. Discord is popular with some video gamers.
Gray said he had previously deleted a Discord account and denied that he would make such a threat, "even in a joking manner," according to the report.
Gray's father, Colin, told the officers that he had hunting rifles in the house but that his son "does not have unfettered access to them." The two guns were both "locked away," the father told them. Authorities have said the shooting was carried out with an AR-style rifle.
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"I urged Colin to keep his firearms locked away, and advised him to keep Colt out of school until this matter could be resolved," investigator Daniel Miller Jr. wrote.
Jackson County investigators could not substantiate the Discord threat, which came from a user profile that spelled Lanza in Russian, according to the report. Adam Lanza perpetrated the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
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The officer also found that the information sent to the FBI was communicated via various IP addresses across the world: Palmdale, California; Los Angeles; and Cockburn, Australia. He also reviewed the email address and phone number related to the case as well as the user profile linked to the threats.
"At this time, due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI, the allegation that [the Apalachee shooting suspect or his father] is the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated," the investigating officer wrote in 2023. "This case will be exceptionally cleared."
The FBI said Thursday that the bureau did not directly investigate the suspect behind the Georgia high school mass shooting this week but shared the anonymous tip with local law enforcement.
The report described the suspect as "quit (sic), calm and reserved while we spoke with him." Colin Gray said his family had recently been evicted from their previous home, that he and his wife were divorced and that "she took the two younger kids."
"Colin conveyed that his 13 year old son had some problems at West Jackson Middle School and now that he is going to Jefferson Middle School it has gotten a lot better," the report reads.
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An FBI source told Fox News Digital that if there is no immediate threat to life, it is protocol to inform local law enforcement, provide information and have them investigate tips.
"There’s only so much you can do when you get those warnings," former FBI agent Rob D'Amico told "FOX & Friends First" on Thursday.
"The local officers went out and interviewed the father, interviewed the son. He denied making those online threats," D'Amico continued. "The father said that the son did not have unfettered access to the weapons. They did what they could, and then they left because there was no probable cause to take other action."
A spokesperson for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told Fox News Digital that the parents of the suspected shooter "have been cooperative up until this point."
The comment came in response to a question about whether authorities are investigating the shooter's parents in the wake of Wednesday's attack, which left four dead and nine others injured.
The suspect has been booked into the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center and was charged with four counts of felony murder ahead of his first court appearance Friday morning. The Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center is located about an hour north of Apalachee High School in Winder.
Matthew Fagiana, a retired police sergeant and law enforcement consultant, told Fox News Digital that officials are zeroing in on the 14-year-old suspect's past and motive at the start of the investigation.
"Things such as the timeline of the incident, a chronological history of the suspect leading up to the shooting, a deep look into the suspect's past for things such as interactions with the victims, the existence of any indications of violent behavior, statements or social media posts that could help them develop a motive, and recent internet history," he said.
"And that, of course, only scratches the surface of the investigation," he added.
Fagiana noted that responding agencies, including the FBI's Atlanta field office and Jackson County Sheriff's Office, are combing the scene of Apalachee High School to construct an "accurate picture" of the suspect's pathway through the school.
Fox News Digital's Greg Norman, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
