Colt Gray sentenced to life for Georgia school shooting

Colt Gray, the teenager who pleaded guilty to killing four people at Apalachee High School in Georgia, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Gray, now 16, was 14 when he carried out the September 2024 shooting in the town of Winder. Two 14-year-old students and two teachers were killed, and nine other people were wounded. He was charged as an adult.

Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm said Gray had been failed by his parents and extended family but that did not absolve him of responsibility. Primm said Gray had not been bullied at Apalachee High School, did not know anyone there and carried out the attack for infamy.

Gray's father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March 2026 of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, in a rare case involving a parent charged over a shooting carried out by their child. Colin Gray had bought his son the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack as a Christmas present in 2023, despite warnings that his son had threatened to carry out a school shooting.

The case comes amid increased scrutiny in the United States of parental responsibility in mass shootings. The parents of a teenager who killed four people at a Michigan high school in 2021 were convicted of manslaughter charges in 2024 and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.