Parents of Georgia school shooting victims demand life without parole for teen shooter
Families of four victims killed in the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting told a court that 16-year-old Colt Gray should face life in prison without parole, as he pleaded guilty to 55 charges including murder.
A sentencing hearing for Colt Gray, the teenager who carried out a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia in September 2024, took place on Friday in Barrow County Superior Court. Gray, now 16, pleaded guilty to 55 charges, including four counts of second-degree murder, for the attack that killed two teachers and two students and wounded nine others.
The hearing, presided over by Judge Nicholas Primm, will determine whether Gray is eligible for parole after a mandatory life sentence. Victim impact statements were delivered by family members, most of whom urged the judge to impose a sentence of life without parole.
Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband Richard was killed, described the families as receiving "a life sentence of grief and trauma." She said her two daughters, aged two and five at the time of the attack, will be "forever marked by his absence."
Breanna Schermerhorn, mother of slain student Mason Schermerhorn, said she does not forgive Gray. She emphasized that Gray made the decision to bring the gun and pull the trigger: "Those decisions were his and his alone." She added that Mason deserved a future, and Gray took that away.
A teenage student who was wounded, who cannot be named because she is a minor, recalled feeling "really scared and confused" when she saw Gray standing in the doorway with a gun. She had multiple surgeries and could not walk for about a year. "After the shooting, I struggled with so much anxiety, and I felt like my life was over," she said.
Jessica Rehberg, principal of Apalachee High School, called Gray's actions "cruel" and said they deserve "the harshest consequences."
According to investigators, Gray planned the attack meticulously. He brought an assault-style rifle to school wrapped in poster board, left his class, and emerged from a bathroom to open fire. A notebook found in his bedroom contained instructions and a diagram indicating he believed he could kill up to 26 people and wound 13. Detectives also discovered a shrine dedicated to Nikolas Cruz, the perpetrator of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.
Gray's father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter for providing his son with the weapon. His sentencing is scheduled for next week.
The hearing is expected to continue into the following week as more evidence and testimony are presented.
