Mother of accused Georgia school shooter takes stand in Colin Gray's murder trial

The mother of accused Apalachee school shooter Colt Gray took the stand to testify on Monday during the murder trial of Colin Gray, the teen's father and her estranged husband.

In court, Marcee Gray discussed her son's behavior, her struggles with addiction, her loss of custody of her children, and her arrest a year before the deadly shooting.

During questioning, Gray said that she believed her son needed professional help due to his anxiety and violent outbursts and had sent her husband at least one link to an inpatient treatment center for the teen.

In late 2022, Marcee Gray and her two younger children moved to Fitzgerald, Georgia, while Colt stayed with Colin.

She said at one point that Colt Gray lived with her in August 2023, but that his behavior was unpredictable and aggressive. She said he damaged windows, cut furniture, and wrote on the walls of the home. The behavior got so bad that she moved her daughter to her parents' house, Marcee Gray said.

After two run-ins with the police, Colt refused to talk to her and eventually moved back in with his father, Gray said.

Time in rehab and in jail

In the months after Colt's time living with her, Marcee Gray said an anonymous tip led the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services to drug test her, which she failed. Following that, her two other children went to live with her husband.

Calling her situation "horrific," Gray testified that she was shut out of talking to her husband or other children and tried to reach out through her mother, DFCS, and Barrow County to make sure they were safe.

Gray described herself as having a mental breakdown in which she decided to go to confront her ex-husband on Nov. 4, 2023.

According to a police incident report, she taped her 74-year-old mother to a chair and took her phone to keep her from alerting Colin that she was coming and then drove to Barrow County. There, Marcee Gray said she tried to see her kids, and when she couldn't, she keyed the side of Colin's work truck and left.

Gray was arrested the next day and pleaded guilty to charges of criminal trespassing, using a license plate to disguise her car, and causing property damage. She was sentenced to 45 days in jail and barred from Barrow County.

After getting out of jail, Marcee Gray said she entered the Promise of Hope rehab facility, which she left on July 6, 2024. Colin Gray picked her up, and she went to live with her husband and children for five weeks.

Signs of concern before the deadly shooting

In 2021, years before the shooting at Apalachee High School, a school counselor had called the family to say that Colt Gray had found a way around his school's internet firewall and had looked up the phrase "how to kill my dad," Marcee Gray testified.

While living with the family in 2024, she said that she and her son watched a lot of true crime series and documentaries. At one point, she said that the teen made a comment about a school shooting.

"He was talking about a vest — his dad buying him a vest — and he said it in what I thought was a joking manner," Gray said. "He said, 'Yeah, I gotta finish my school shooter outfit,' or 'Dad's gotta finish my school shooter outfit.'"

That August, she said she had a physical altercation with her son over his carrying a gun around the house.

Gray said that she talked to her husband about locking up the weapons, since the gun safe the family had previously was lost in their moves. He told her he would, she said. Prosecutors say he never did.

She testified she called her son's high school the morning of the shootings to warn the staff after Colin Gray forwarded her a text message that Colt had sent saying, "I'm sorry."

"They weren't normal Colt texts, and you could tell something was not right," she said.

Her son later sent her the same text after she had spoken to school officials.

"I knew something was going on with Colt. What that something was, I had no idea," she said. "I didn't know if he was going to hurt himself, hurt someone else. I didn't know what was going on."

Georgia father and son charged in deadly school shooting

On Sept. 4, prosecutors say Colt Gray brought an assault-style rifle to school in his backpack and opened fire during morning classes, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others. 

Marcee Gray said that she had searched "Apalachee school shooting" in Google. It was then she said she learned what had happened and sent a text to her husband, testifying in court that she had a strong feeling that Colt was the shooter before it was confirmed by police.

The teen, now 16, was charged with 55 felony counts, including four counts of felony murder. Father Colin Gray faces 28 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors allege that Colin provided his son the weapon despite warnings about alleged threats he had made.

In a letter after the shooting, Marcee Gray apologized to those affected by the violence.

"I am so, so sorry and can not fathom the pain and suffering they are going through right now," she wrote.

Gray is expected to continue her testimony when the court resumes Monday afternoon.

If convicted, Colin Gray could face up to 180 years in prison. Colt Gray's trial date has not been set yet.

The Associated Press and Skyler Henry contributed to this report.