Georgia school shooting: Mother of suspect ‘called school minutes before attack’

Mother of Colt Gray (14) warned Apalachee High School of ‘extreme emergency’ during a 10-minute phone call, according to Washington Post report

Mourners at a makeshift memorial outside Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Photograph: Christian Monterrosa/The New York Times
Mourners at a makeshift memorial outside Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Photograph: Christian Monterrosa/The New York Times

The mother of the 14-year-old boy charged with fatally shooting four people at his Georgia high school this past week has told relatives that she had called the school on the morning on the attack, warning of an “extreme emergency,” her sister said Saturday.

Officials said the suspect, Colt Gray, opened fire Wednesday morning on the campus of Apalachee High School in Winder, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others.

Authorities responded about 10.30am, but the suspect’s mother, Marcee, apparently called the school at 9.50am, said her sister, Annie Brown

Marcee Gray told Ms Brown in a text message after the shooting that she had notified a counsellor at the school, ms Brown said.

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The phone call to the school was first reported Saturday by the Washington Post, which cited Ms Brown, text messages and a call log from the family’s shared phone plan that documented a 10-minute phone call from the mother’s number to the school.

Ms Brown confirmed the details of the Post’s reporting to the New York Times on Saturday evening. A federal law enforcement official confirmed the mother called the school shortly before the shooting.

A spokesperson for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has been handling the investigation, declined to comment on Saturday.

Jud Smith, the sheriff for Barrow County, where the shooting happened, did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment, nor did officials from the Barrow County School System.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.