The father of the mass shooting suspect accused of killing four people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, told investigators this week he had purchased the gun used in the killings as a holiday present for his son in December 2023, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student, is accused of killing two students and two teachers with an AR-style rifle in the Wednesday shooting. Nine more people were hospitalized.
One source told CNN the AR-15-style rifle was purchased at a local gun store as a Christmas present.
The timeline the teen’s father, Colin Gray, provided to authorities would put the gun purchase months after authorities first contacted Gray and his family to investigate school shooting threats made online.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia closed that investigation because the tip about the threat could not be substantiated.
CNN has made several attempts to reach Colin Gray by phone and in person at the family home.
Wednesday’s mass shooting, which happened just weeks into the new school year, was the 45th school shooting so far this year and the deadliest US school shooting since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville that left six people dead.
