Georgia school shooting suspect's dad seeks protection in jail, citing 'incalculable number of threats'

Colin Gray, the father of accused 14-year-old Georgia school shooter Colt Gray, is asking to be separated from the other inmates in jail, where he is being held on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and cruelty to children.

In a court filing on Wednesday, attorneys Jimmy Berry and Brian Hobbs said the elder Gray, who is being held without bond, is unsafe among the general population.

"[M]ost notably social media has led to a nonstop barrage of information being transmitted to the public leading to an incalculable number of threats against the Defendant and calling for both harm and violence to befall the Defendant, and in some cases, even calling for the death of the Defendant," they said.

“It is certain that those feelings of anger and retribution manifested in the collective psyche, of both the public and the community at large, are not also represented in the individuals currently incarcerated,” they added in their motion to the Superior Court of Barrow County.

The Barrow County’s Sheriff Office did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.

Gray was arrested the day after police say his son shot and killed four people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga. Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder.

The FBI says Colt Gray was interviewed in 2023 regarding prior threats he made online, including photos of guns. The bureau said it referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. 

In their filing, Colin Gray's attorney's said, “In fact, so many lives in the community of Barrow County have been touched in unfathomable ways, it would be reckless to assume there are NO inmates, either currently or in the near future, being housed in the Barrow County Detention, who wish to harm the Defendant."