‘We had probable cause,’ GBI says

The father of the teenager charged in the deadly Apalachee High School shooting now has been arrested and charged in the case, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday night.

“We had probable cause to make the arrest,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said of 54-year-old Colin Gray at a news conference. “All I can tell you is that he is in custody at this time.”

The son, 14-year-old Colt Gray, is charged as an adult with murder. He is accused of opening fire Wednesday at the Georgia high school outside Atlanta. The Associated Press is reporting that he has denied to investigators that he threatened to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him last year about a menacing post on social media, according to a sheriff’s report obtained Thursday.

Arrest warrants obtained by the AP accuse Colt Gray of using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle in the attack, which killed two students and two teachers and wounded nine other people.

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Colin Gray is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children, Hosey and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a social media post.

Hosey did not offer much else about the circumstances of the father’s arrest because the investigation remains fluid.

“This is a time for all of us, as a community and as a state, to come together and remain vigilant,” he said. He also asked students throughout the state to report any suspicious activity they might see.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, who also spoke at the news conference broadcast live via social media, gave an update on the wounded — two adult teachers and rest, students.

“The nine injured, I am very happy to say, will make a full recovery, the sheriff said. “That’s a testament to the response we had, in my opinion, and the response the medical staff had, in my opinion.”

He noted that several of the victims remain in a hospital and some have been released.

Smith said his office met with teachers on Thursday, also noting that “emotions are very high, obviously. We told them we love them. We our teachers and what they do . . . They stood in the gap between evil to protect the children.”

We will continue to follow this story.

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