‘I’m sorry:’ Mother of alleged Apalachee school shooter received cryptic texts from son that day

BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — The mother of the accused Apalachee High School shooter is speaking for the first time about the warning call she made to the school prior to the tragic event.

As students in Barrow County return to class for the first time since last week’s shooting, Apalachee High School students still do not have a return date.

Colt Gray’s mother, Marcee Gray, opened up about the chilling series of events that led to the shooting. She revealed that on the morning of the incident, her son sent her and his father cryptic messages.

Between her gut feelings, the text messages, and an urgent email, Gray knew she needed to take immediate action.

Gray said that she contacted counselors at Apalachee High School that morning, urging them to get a school resource officer to pull Colt from his class.

“You need to go, like, run to the classroom,” Gray said she told the school.

She shared that Colt sent two concerning text messages: the first to his dad said, “I’m sorry,” and the second said, “You’re not to blame.”

She also received a text simply saying, “I’m sorry.”

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Sheriff’s deputies eventually arrested Colt Gray for the shooting that killed two teachers and two students and injured nine others.

“The counselor said, ‘I want to let you know that earlier this morning one of Colt’s teachers sent me an email that said Colt had been making references to school shootings,’” Gray recounted.

On Monday, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office released body cam footage of deputies questioning Colt Gray after receiving a tip in 2023 that he had made threats to shoot up his school on the gaming app Discord.

Gray responded calmly, denying any threats, saying, “Like I told him, I promise I would never say something, so you haven’t used Discord in a few months… yeah.”

During the conversation, Gray remained soft-spoken and swayed left and right.

“Did you say something about a school shooting?” another deputy asked Gray.

“Never. I just told them, maybe they misheard somebody. I would never say that,” he replied.

Deputies found no probable cause to arrest or charge Colt Gray at that time. Jackson County investigators said they have no intentions to reopen the 2023 case.

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All Barrow schools except Apalachee High School return to class Tuesday

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