The 14-year-old Georgia boy who opened fire in a classroom at his school, killing two students and two teachers, grew up in a troubled home, his family and neighbors said.
His father, Colin Gray, bought him the AR-15 rifle he used in the shooting as a Christmas present, even though police had previously investigated the child for threatening to shoot people at his school in 2023.
His mother, Marcee, was arrested several times for drug use and domestic violence.
A neighbor described the mother as neglectful and violent toward her children, saying she regularly locked Gray and his siblings out of the house and wouldn't let them in.
“They were banging on the back door, screaming, 'Mom! Mom! Mom!' and crying. It was really horrible,” she told the New York Post, adding that the children sometimes begged for food from neighbors.
His mother's long criminal history, spanning 17 years, includes charges of domestic violence, drug possession, destruction of property and several traffic violations, including drunk driving. She was in jail as recently as April
“I would often find her passed out in the driveway early in the morning, with the car running and the music blaring,” the neighbor said, adding that the woman would drop off her youngest son at daycare while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
She said Gray didn't talk much about the abuse or act aggressively, but she did see him miss school often and wander around the empty house or in the woods.
“He wasn't a bully or a mean kid. He didn't say much. He was so quiet,” she said.
Gray's maternal grandfather, however, blamed the teen's father, saying Gray was “just a good kid” living in a hostile environment.
“His father was beating him up, I mean, I'm not talking about physical abuse, but yelling and screaming, and he did the same thing to my daughter,” he told DailyExpertNews, but added that the teen never showed any signs of anger.
Gray's aunt told the Washington Post that her nephew struggled with mental health issues and had been “begging everyone around him for help” for months before the shooting.
