The chairman of a state legislative committee studying gun safety proposals asked the mother and the grandparents of the 14-year-old charged in the Apalachee High School shooting to testify before his Senate panel next week.
Democratic state Sen. Emanuel Jones said the suspect’s relatives can help lawmakers understand what steps officials and school administrators could have taken to prevent the mass shooting last week that left two students and two teachers dead.
“We keep talking about mental health,” said Jones, a DeKalb County Democrat. “And there’s no better source than the parents and grandparents. The system failed them, and they failed the system.”
Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with four counts of felony murder. Prosecutors say more charges are forthcoming. His father, Colin Gray, is charged with second-degree murder and other crimes. Warrants allege he gave the teenager access to the semiautomatic gun used in the deadly shooting “with knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others.”
Jones hasn’t yet heard from Colt Gray’s mother and grandparents about whether they’ll testify at the Senate hearing, which is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 18. He said he wants lawmakers to hear more details about how the attack unfolded, some of which have trickled out in media reports.
Colt Gray’s aunt has told reporters his mother, Marcee Gray, called the school on the morning of the shooting to warn a counselor about an “extreme emergency.”
And the suspect’s grandfather, Charlie Polhamus, has said that his wife, Deborah, twice went to the school before the shooting to request help for the teenager.
Charlie Polhamus told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he’s wary of speaking more about the tragedy.
“I really can’t do this now,” he said. “I’ve done 20 of these (interviews) and really don’t want to do any more. It’s bad enough what I’m going through. It’s bad for everybody. It’s not just bad for my daughter.”
Gray told ABC News on Tuesday she called her son’s school six days before the shooting because she wanted “Colt to be admitted to an impatient treatment” and that her son agreed.
“What happened to them and their sweet, innocent babies is just unfathomable,” she said. “If I could take their place, I would. I would in a heartbeat.”
Jones said he hopes the Senate Safe Firearm Storage Study Committee can broker bipartisan compromises beyond new incentives to encourage gun owners to buy safety mechanisms.
That includes new efforts to give prosecutors more leeway to bring charges against parents of children accused of mass shootings and more requirements for law enforcement to share details about threats with school administrators.
Georgia lawmakers have long been deeply divided over gun restrictions, with Republicans largely opposed to new firearms regulations. But some bipartisan leaders say there’s hope for a “middle ground” after scaled-back gun safety measures failed to pass earlier this year.
Staff writer Joe Kovac Jr. contributed to this report.
