Georgia shooter’s father enlisted his ex-cop sister to counsel son after FBI tip about high school attack threat – but he still went ahead and bought him the deadly weapon

The father of suspected school shooter Colt Gray enlisted his retired police lieutenant sister to talk to the teenager after they were probed by the FBI, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Gray, 14, is accused of killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday.

His father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged in relation to the killings after admitting to authorities that he bought the weapon used in the attack for his son.

Interview transcripts reveal that his sister is a former Henderson, Nevada police lieutenant, who Colin asked to speak to the troubled teen after authorities probed an FBI tip.

Colt and his father were interviewed after the sheriff received a tip from the FBI that Gray, then 13, ‘had possibly threatened to shoot up a middle school tomorrow.’

Colt Gray, 14, (pictured) is accused of fatally shooting two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia on Wednesday.

The threat was made on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers, according to the sheriff’s office incident report.

Transcripts of his interview with officers’ show that he had tried to tell Colt that a ‘ride along’ will ‘change your life’.

‘We’ve had a long conversation,’ Colin told officers from Jefferson County in 2023, ‘My sister is a retired lieutenant out in Las Vegas.

‘And they had a really long conversation. I went on a ride along and told Colt, I’m telling you right now just one ride along will change your life”.’

His sister Marian Gray rose through the ranks at Henderson Police Department, leaving the force in 2020 as a lieutenant.

Records show that she moved from Nevada to Canton, Georgia, in 2020, and began working as a 911 dispatcher.

The aunt of the suspected school shooter did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.

It comes after family members revealed that Colt’s mother Marcee received a text message from her son saying, ‘I’m Sorry’, the day of the shooting and tried to warn authorities.

She started driving the three hour journey back to Apalachee High School before being told about the tragedy. Colt’s grandmother also claimed she warned the counselor a week before the teenager returned to school.

Colt Gray, 14, is accused of fatally shooting two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia on Wednesday. His father, Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with a crime related to the shootings after admitting to providing his son with the weapon used in the attack

Transcripts of Colin’s interview with officers’ show that he had tried to tell his son Colt that a ‘ride along’ with his retired lieutenant sister Marian will ‘change your life’ (Pictured: Colin left, Marian right)

Interview transcripts also revealed that Colin told cops his son wasn’t a loner, and was being picked on at school, with his peers saying he was gay, according to a report from Jefferson County Sherriff’s Department.

The report also details that Colt told his father ‘I’m a good boy Daddy, I would never do it’ and said, ‘I don’t want to be caught up in any of that’.

The teenager reportedly believed that he would ‘make a great detective’, because of his cyber skills.

Colt was introduced to weapons by his father, who claims he took him hunting out of fear he could be caught up in a school shooting and unable to defend himself.

Documents states: ‘I introduced him to bow hunting, then it was a pellet gun, then it was a 22.

‘Gun safety was in all of this because I worry about him and school, and you never know what would ever happen.’

Conflicting evidence on the post’s origin left investigators unable to arrest anyone, the report said.

Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the report from May 2023 and found nothing that would have justified bringing charges at the time.

Pictured: Colin and Marian Gray posing for their family portrait with their siblings and parents

‘We did not drop the ball at all on this,’ Mangum told The Associated Press in an interview. ‘We did all we could do with what we had at the time.’

The teen was interviewed after the sheriff received a tip from the FBI that Gray ‘had possibly threatened to shoot up a middle school tomorrow.’

He reportedly made the threat on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers, according to the sheriff’s office incident report.

The FBI’s tip pointed to a Discord account associated with an email address linked to Colt Gray, the report said.

The account had a username written in Russian, and the translation of the letters spelled out the name Lanza, referencing Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy.

Gray denied he was the author of the threats, telling police he’d shut down his Discord after being repeatedly hacked. He expressed concerns that someone would make those accusations about him.

Teacher Richard Aspinwall was named as one of the four victims of the shooting. Christina Irimie was also identified as a victim

Mason Schermerhorn, 14, an autistic student at Apalachee High School, was the first victim to be identified. Christian Angulo, 14, also lost his life in the senseless shooting

‘He knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can do, and how to use them and not use them,’ Colin told authorities.

The boy reportedly was obsessed with other infamous school shooters such as Parkland, Florida killer Nikolas Cruz.

Investigators wrote that no arrests were made because of ‘inconsistent information’ on the Discord account, which had profile information in Russian and a digital evidence trail indicating it had been accessed in different Georgia cities as well as Buffalo, New York.

Authorities closed the case being unable to substantiate that either Gray was connected to the Discord account, and did not find grounds to seek the needed court order to confiscate the family’s guns.

Father and son both appeared at Barrow County Superior Court on Friday, in shackles and handcuffed at the front of their body.

Colt reportedly told police ‘I did it’ when read his Miranda rights after his arrest on Wednesday.

The teen, dressed in a green t-shirt and grey sweatpants, kept his head down, with his hair covering his face, and spoke softly only to Judge Currie Mingledorff, replying ‘yes sir’ when asked to confirm his name.

Georgia school shooter Colt Gray made his first court appearance on Friday

Judge Mingledorff brought Gray back in to correct a statement he made, telling him: ‘I wanted to make it clear to you that the penalty does not include death. It includes life without the possibility of parole or with the possibility of parole.’

A 2005 Supreme Court decision forbids the execution of offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed.

His father cried as he appeared shortly after his son in the same courtroom, rocking back and forth.

Colin Gray shuffled in wearing a prison-issued striped shirt and tracksuit, in shackles like his son. He stated his name in a croaky voice, confirming his age, and that he was able to read and write.

Judge Mingledorff advised the elder Gray that he could face up to 30 years in prison for each felony murder count, 10 years for each involuntary manslaughter charges and cruelty to children – the maximum totaling 180 years.