By Rich McKay
ATLANTA (Reuters) -Suspected Georgia high-school shooter Colt Gray made his first appearance in state court, where he faces murder charges stemming from Wednesday’s rampage that killed four people and wounded nine others.
The 14-year-old, who was being held without bond in the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, did not enter a plea in front of Barrow County Superior Court Judge Currie Mingledorff.
Mingledorff told Gray that he was charged with four counts of felony murder and that he could face the life in prison if convicted by a jury. Gray was shackled as he sat next to his attorney and answered several of the judge’s questions with a nod.
The judge earlier told Gray that he could face the death penalty, but later corrected himself, telling the youth he was not eligible for the death penalty given that he is younger than 18 years old.
His father, Colin Gray, 54, has also been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. He was expected to appear in court soon after his son on Friday morning.
“Colin Gray knowingly allowed his son, Colt Gray, to possess a gun. Due to the active investigation, we’re unable to release further details,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Georgia state and Barrow County investigators say 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.
He was arrested moments after the shooting by two sheriff’s deputies assigned to the school.
Investigators have yet to comment on what may have motivated the first mass shooting on a U.S. school campus since classes resumed at summer’s end.
The shooting in Winder, a city of 18,000 some 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Atlanta, revived both the national debate about gun control and the outpouring of grief that follows in a country where such attacks occur with some regularity.
Officials identified those killed as 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.
One teacher and eight students were also wounded in the attack, the Georgia bureau said. Of those, the adult and six of the students were shot, the bureau said.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Frank McGurty and Jonathan Oatis)