Families of Apalachee victims plan $25M suits, say school ignored warning signs
Local law enforcement agencies and at least two school districts failed to react to multiple warnings that a student was planning a shooting at Apalachee High School, victims’ families said in a series of filings obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The families of students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn and teacher Richard Aspinwall signaled their intention to file lawsuits over the incident in notices to Jackson County and its sheriff’s office, Barrow County and its sheriff’s office and Barrow County school authorities earlier this month. Two of the families are each demanding $25 million, according to the filings.
The families say that several law enforcement agencies and school authorities had been alerted that Colt Gray, the 14-year-old facing charges in the Sept. 4, 2024 shooting that killed four and injured nine, was planning something. But several key decision-makers failed to act, allowing the tragedy to unfold, the families said.
For example, over a year before the shooting, the FBI had alerted local authorities about a tip that Gray may have been using Discord, an online message board service, to talk about shooting at a school. And Gray’s mother had called a school counselor after she received a cryptic text message from him the morning of the shooting, but the school didn’t initiate a lockdown or take any action to prevent the incident, according to the notices.
The shooting, the families said in their nearly identical notices, was “the direct and foreseeable result of systemic negligence, policy failures and a complete breakdown in communication and accountability across multiple agencies.”
“Each ignored warning, every missed opportunity to act, and every policy failure directly paved the way for the massacre that claimed Mason Schermerhorn’s life,” one of the notices said.
The family for the fourth victim, Cristina Irimie, has not yet filed a notice. Angulo’s family did not list a demand amount, but Schermerhorn’s and Aspinwall’s families are seeking $25 million each.
The AJC obtained the notices, known as ante litem notices, through open records requests. Plaintiffs in Georgia are required to give notice to government entities before filing suit.
The AJC reached out to all the parties listed in the notices for comment. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith and a spokesperson for the county declined to comment. Representatives for the other parties didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The allegations from the families center around what they say was a series of failures to communicate and follow up on warnings, including from the FBI, about Gray’s behavior.
In an earlier incident, according to the notices, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office was aware that Gray could be a danger to students but failed to take promised steps to monitor the boy.
Jackson County deputies had visited the Grays’ home in May 2023 after receiving the tip from the FBI. Gray had finished the seventh grade at Jefferson Middle School the day before the FBI got word of the online threats.
He had transferred to the Jefferson school in 2022 from another middle school in Jackson County.
When talking to Gray, the boy told then-Jackson County Sheriff’s Office investigator Daniel Miller Jr. that he once used Discord but said he would never talk about committing a school shooting, the AJC reported.
However, the victims’ families say it was during that interview that it was evident Gray had access to firearms and had exhibited a threatening behavior.
During a hearing last year, Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents testified Gray wrote plans for the mass shooting in a notebook and used a rifle that his father, Colin Gray, had given him for Christmas in the shooting.
After talking to Gray for a few minutes during that 2023 interview, investigators concluded that he hadn’t made the online threats, according to audio recordings, transcripts and a case file reviewed by the AJC.
“It’s not anything that I’m concerned about,” Miller told the teen’s father two days later, according to a transcript of the interview.
According to one of the notices, Jackson Sheriff’s Office Capt. Dale Dillow told the FBI that the sheriff’s office had made area schools aware of the potential issue and intended to monitor Gray. Dillow did not investigate Gray any further and never notified Apalachee High School about it, the families said.
Jackson County School District and Jefferson City Schools were not notified either, the AJC reported.
“The case was effectively closed, leaving Gray unsupervised and unchecked,” one of the notices said.
Gray enrolled at Apalachee in August 2024, with Barrow County School System not being aware of any of his prior threats and interactions with law enforcement, the families said.
The teen had a series of unexplained absences the weeks leading up to the shooting and even had gotten the attention of a school counselor for his behavior, according to the notices.
On the morning of the shooting, multiple school officials had been warned that something might be coming, the families said. Gray’s mother called a school counselor 32 minutes before the rampage began, saying she had received a concerning text message from her son, but no lockdown was triggered, according to the notices.
Gray’s first period teacher, suspicious of the boy’s behavior and heavy backpack, had emailed administrators to relay his concerns, the families said. Again, they said, no action was taken.
The notices also question policies in place by Barrow County law enforcement and school officials. For example, one policy prevents school resource officers from searching students’ backpacks, leaving that task only to administrators.
That policy bars trained law enforcement agents from acting on potential threats, the families said.
The families also took issue with the sheriff’s offices’ training, saying that the law enforcement officers who visited the Grays’ home in 2023 should have been better prepared to recognize the signs the families say were present.
“The need for training was not speculative — it was obvious and urgent,” Schermerhorn’s family said in their notice. “The Sheriff Department’s complete lack of training represents a systemic failure that directly enabled this mass murder.”
The GBI said Gray had ridden the school bus the morning of the incident and hidden a SIG Sauer M400 in his backpack. The long rifle stuck out of the bag, so Gray used a rolled-up poster board to hide it. At a quick glance, it simply appeared Gray was transporting a school project.
Gray was indicted on 55 charges, including felony murder, malice murder, aggravated battery, cruelty to children in the first degree and aggravated assault. He pleaded not guilty.
His father, Colin Gray, faces 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, five counts of reckless conduct and 20 counts of child cruelty. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 6.
About the Authors
Jennifer Peebles is a newsroom data specialist at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, helping reporters find and tell stories with government data (and sometimes documents, too).
