Teen and father charged with Georgia school shooting appear in court

The 14-year-old suspect in a shooting at a Georgia high school in which four people died will stay in detention as his lawyer declined to seek bail at his first court hearing on Friday.
His father later appeared before the same court on charges of enabling his son to obtain the rifle used in the shooting, which left nine people injured.
Colt Gray faces murder charges stemming from Wednesday’s attack in Winder, a town of 18,000 people about 80km northeast of Atlanta. He did not enter a plea in front of Barrow County Superior Court Judge Currie Mingledorff.
He was being held without bail in the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Centre.
Judge Mingledorff told Colt Gray that he was charged with four counts of felony murder and that he could face life in prison if convicted by a jury. The boy, who was shackled as he sat next to his attorney, answered several of the judge’s questions with a nod.
The judge earlier told him he could face the death penalty, but later corrected himself, telling the youth he was not eligible for capital punishment given that he is younger than 18.
His father, Colin Gray, came before the judge about 40 minutes after his son left the court. He has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. The judge said he faces up to 180 years in prison.
The 54-year-old was shackled and wearing a jail striped shirt and trousers. He quietly answered a few questions by the judge and then spent most of the hearing rocking back and forth.
Georgia state and Barrow County investigators allege Colt Gray used an “AR platform-style weapon,” or semiautomatic rifle, to carry out the attack at Apalachee High School, where two teachers and two 14-year-old students were killed.
One teacher and eight students were also wounded in the attack, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. Colt Gray was arrested moments after the shooting by two sheriff’s deputies assigned to the school.
Officials identified those killed as 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall (39), and Cristina Irimie, 53. Mr Aspinwall and Ms Irimie were both maths teachers, and Mr Aspinwall also helped coach the school’s football team. Ms Irimie, who emigrated to the US from Romania, volunteered at a local church, where she taught dance.
Investigators have yet to comment on what may have motivated what was the first mass shooting on a US school campus since classes resumed at summer’s end.
The teenager had denied threatening 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 on Thursday. – Reuters/AP