Authorities are investigating a possible connection between Apalachee High School mass shooting suspect Colt Gray and a social media account inspired by the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, after investigators recently discovered writings in his room referencing the 2018 Parkland High School massacre.
Gray has reportedly made shooting threats in the past on the messaging app Discord. New Audio Fox News has obtained this information from a visit by officials to his home in 2023 and a recently released police report.
The Jackson County report revealed that the FBI had received multiple tips from users with Internet addresses in Palmdale, California, Los Angeles, and the Western Australian town of Cockburn, including “comments about a school shooting” made on Discord.
The suspected attacker has been identified as 14-year-old student Colt Gray. (Barrow County Sheriff’s Office)
The officer noted in his report that the email associated with the Discord account likely belonged to Gray, the teen who is accused of killing four people and wounding nine others at his school on Wednesday, according to the FBI’s “open source query.”
Colt Gray leaves the Barrow County Courthouse on September 6, 2024 in Winder, Georgia. (AP Photo/Brin Anderson/Pool)
Law enforcement The online threat was investigated and it was found that the user profile name was written in Russian and translated as Lanza, a reference to Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza, who shot and killed 20 first-grade students and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
Residents lay flowers near Sandy Hook Elementary School in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, on December 15, 2012, for the children and teachers who were shot and killed the day before. (Robert Nickelsburg/Getty Images)
Audio from a May 2023 interview with the Georgia suspect and his father, Colin Gray, paints a detailed picture of the investigation at the time.
Both father and son told police they did not speak Russian, and the teen, 13 at the time, denied that he was the author of the threats. The teen also said he had deleted his Discord account due to it being hacked and that he had never made any comments about school shootings.
The officer wrote in his report that the teen appeared “calm and composed” when interviewed by police.
Apalachee High School shooting suspect appears in court for the first time
“I’m a little shocked by this whole thing, but I can tell you I take it very seriously and he takes it very seriously,” the elder Gray told police at the time, according to audio obtained by police.
The police soon decided that they did not need to take any further action.
“Due to the inconsistent nature of the information received The FBI.” “The allegations that Colt or Colin are the users behind the Discord account that made the threats cannot be substantiated,” an investigator wrote.
Authorities also found documents in the teen’s bedroom they believe he wrote, including a reference to the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. According to a report by CNN,
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida (Mattias J. Oconer/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images/File)
Although the suspect’s motive is still unclear, Colin Gray discussed his son Struggles with mental health At school and at home.
“He’s going through a lot of trouble … it’s very hard for him to go to school and not get bullied,” the senior Gray told officers during an investigation into online threats, according to the audio.
The teenager’s parents were divorced and he was cared for by his father.
“He had separation issues at first. I’ve been taking him to school,” the teen’s father told police.
A photo of Colt Gray’s height had been hanging in the childhood home of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect for years. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)
Colt had an unstable childhood, with the young teen having to live in at least three rental houses in a short period of time. As per the latest report from Fox Digital,
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Police said Colin Gray knowingly allowed his son to have weapons.
“He knows the seriousness of weapons, knows what they can do, how to use them and how not to use them,” the father told police in the recording.
Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with four counts of aggravated murder and more charges are likely.
Colin Gray, 54, was also arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
The government attorney representing both Colin and Colt Gray did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
