Apalachee High School Gunman’s Mother Says She Warned School About Rampage

Apalachee High School shooting suspect Colton Gray’s mother claims she tried to warn the Winder, Georgia school of an “extreme emergency” the day her son opened fire on his classmates.

In text messages obtained by The Washington Post, Marcee Gray told family members that she “notified the school counselor at the high school” to check on her 14-year-old son on Wednesday morning.

“I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him,” she wrote in a Sept. 4 text message after news of the shooting broke.

Call logs from Gray’s phone back up this claim, showing she had a 10-minute call with the school beginning at 9:50 a.m., reported The Post. Text messages also revealed that there had been conversations about Colton’s deteriorating mental health.

During their call, a counselor reportedly told Gray that Colton was overheard talking about a school shooting that morning, according to Gray’s sister Annie Brown. This reportedly led to an administrator attempting to locate Colton, entering a class and confusing his identify with that of another student. Armed with an AR-15-style rifle, Colton allegedly killed four of his teachers and classmates shortly after.

“Our focus is currently on healing our community and supporting our students during this incredibly difficult time,” wrote Barrow County School System Superintendent Dallas LeDuff in an email to The Post, after being contacted about the text messages.