The mother of the 14-year-old boy arrested on four counts of murder after last week’s school shooting in Georgia called the school to warn them of his intentions. Shockingly, the warning came just half an hour before the rampage occurred.
Last Wednesday, a teenager named Colt Gray allegedly showed up at Apalachee High School and opened fire with an assault rifle. Two 14-year-old students identified as Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, as well as two teachers — Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53 — were killed. Multiple other people were hospitalized with injuries from the shooting, too.
Gray was taken into custody alive at the scene by police. He has since been charged with four counts of murder and a variety of other offenses. The teenager’s father has also been charged in the case; authorities say he bought the AR-15 for his son as a Christmas present.
Related: JD Vance Says School Shootings Are ‘A Fact Of Life’ — And Gets ROASTED For It!
Now, we have learned the boy’s mother was so gravely concerned about what her son might have been capable of that she actually called Apalachee High School officials about 30 minutes before the shooting occurred. According to the Washington Post, Marcee Gray called the school on the morning of the attack last week and spoke to a counselor about what she termed an “extreme emergency” involving her son. The call to the school, per that outlet, was placed at 9:50 a.m. and lasted for ten minutes. Then, at 10:23 a.m., the shooting started.
Wow…
The Post was first tipped off to this phone call by a woman named Annie Brown, who is Marcee Gray’s sister. She shared text messages with the newspaper that Marcee had sent to her confirming that she had indeed tipped off the school when she realized something was amiss. Per those texts, Marcee told her sister this about the moments before her son allegedly opened fire at the high school:
“I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school. I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”
Marcee later confirmed the veracity of those texts to the Post, too. And, the newspaper also obtained call logs that matched up with the ten-minute-long phone call being placed at 9:50 a.m. prior to the shooting.
Now, Marcee did not go into detail with the paper about what specifically tipped her off to calling the school. But according to a second report from CNN, we may know why. Per that outlet, Marcee’s father (and Colt’s grandfather) Charles Polhamus was with his daughter in the Georgia city of Fitzgerald — which is about 200 miles south of Winder — when the mom received a text from her son that morning reading:
“I’m sorry, mom.”
At that point, Polhamus told CNN that Marcee immediately called the school. She then began to drive from Fitzgerald to Winder, which was right as the shooting was occurring. We’d have to assume she had been worried about this exact type of behavior for some time — it’s not an assumption you’d jump to if not, right?
The Post was also able to confirm that Colt’s family had been in touch with the school about his mental health in the week before the attack, as well. Per the paper, relatives had discussed their concern that the teen was having “homicidal and suicidal thoughts” in the days leading up to the shooting. So chilling…
Now, as investigators try to determine a motive for the mass shooting, and Colt’s dad Colin Gray faces those involuntary manslaughter charges in the case as well, Marcee is speaking out. She released this very brief statement to the newspaper:
“I am so, so sorry and cannot fathom the pain and suffering they are going through right now.”
This whole story is just so unbelievably tragic — and it’s starting to look more and more like it was preventable if the boy’s parents had done things differently.
To learn more about the impact of gun violence, visit https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence.
If you’re experiencing emotional distress related to incidents of mass violence, you can call or text the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or visit their website at https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/disaster-distress-helpline for more resources.
[Image via MEGA/WENN.]
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