Marcee Gray warned Apalachee High School that there was an “extreme emergency” involving her son on the day he killed two students and two teachers.
It was previously reported that the school received warning calls before the shooting, but now text messages released by The Washington Post show that it was in fact Colt Gray’s mother who called the school.
Text messages from Marcee Gray to other family members state that she called the high school on the morning of the shooting and warned one of the school’s counsellors about an “extreme emergency” involving her son.
Call-log data show that the shooter’s mother made a ten-minute phone call to the school approximately half an hour before Colt Gray opened fire.
“I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school,” one of the text messages reads.
“I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him.”
Colt Gray’s sister, Annie Brown, stated that a counselor told Marcee Gray that her son had been talking about school shootings earlier that day.
According to reports, school staff went looking for Colt Gray, but ended up mistaking another student for him and confiscating his bag instead—with deadly consequences.
The Post describes what happened:
“Around the same time, a school administrator went to the son’s math classroom, according to Lyela Sayarath, a student in the class. Sayarath said there seemed to be confusion involving another student in the class with a name similar to that of Gray’s son. Neither student was in the room, and the official left with a backpack belonging to the similarly named student, she said. The shooting began minutes later.”
Colt Gray is charged with four counts of felony murder. He appeared in court last Friday but did not enter a plea.
So far, speculation about the circumstances behind the shooting have focused on Gray’s “tumultuous home life,” including the possibility of domestic abuse by his father, who has been arrested in connection with the shooting, and bullying at school.
Colin Gray has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children for his part in the school shooting and, in particular, for buying his son the weapon that was used.
Colt Gray’s mother and maternal grandfather have accused Colin Gray of abusing his family for years.
“He was just a good kid, but he lived in an environment that was hostile,” Charles Polhamus said of his grandson, to CNN.
“His dad beat up on him, I mean, I’m not talking about physical, but screaming and hollering, and he did the same thing to my daughter.”
Colt Gray’s parents separated in 2022 and have lived apart since then.
Colt Gray was investigated by law-enforcement in 2023 in connection with a school-shooting threat. Investigators interviewed the boy and his father about posts on Discord.