Trigger Warning: This article contains references to self-harm that some readers may find distressing.
A teenager who admitted to killing four people at his high school spent hours researching other mass killers before the attack. According to the prosecutors, Colt Gray, 16, took inspiration from killers who committed similar crimes.
On September 4, 2024, Gray leapt into action. He brought a gun to Apalachee High School in Georgia, killed two 14-year-old students and two teachers, and injured nine other people.
On Friday, Gray admitted to the killings and changed his plea to guilty. Prosecutors revealed that he left behind hidden references, or “Easter eggs,” to honor the killers he drew inspiration from.
Gray faces life in prison, and Judge Nicholas Primm will decide if he will ever have a chance for parole.
On Monday, the defense called forensic psychologist Dr. Kevin Richards, who interviewed Gray for over 15 hours after the shooting. In a courtroom cam video posted by COURT TV on YouTube, Richards can be heard describing Gray as an “odd” teen with no real-world friends who spent most of his time online. Gray became obsessed with online true-crime groups that focus on mass shootings.
According to Dr. Richards, there are specific gunmen he studied. Nikolas Cruz, who killed 34 people and injured 17 in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida; James Holmes, who killed 12 people and injured 70 others in a shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado; and Adam Lanza, who killed his mother and then 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut became his favorites.
“I mean, he was talking a lot about how he kind of related to these people, how he could, you know, feel like they had similar histories. Uh, you know, I kind of asked him what drew him to it and he said, ‘Well, you know, Nicholas Cruz was a lonely guy and he had a bad family life and, uh, you know, he was depressed and he thought about killing himself and I had all those things, too and so I I felt like I could relate to him.”
“…it eventually kind of turned into an obsession. But in terms of his mental health, I think he became more isolated, more focused on the computer, and consequently in parallel his ability to kind of have relationships and interactions with people outside of the online world became impaired to the point where he even said ‘if I went out and tried to have interactions with people would be really hard. I just had panic attacks because I’d been so focused on online.’”
“And it was clear by the time the shooting happened that his entire life basically was online… He mentioned knowing some kids at school, but he hadn’t been at Apalachee very long. So there wasn’t really anything going on for him aside from his intense focus on these online relationships, and these online relationships were in the true crime community, which is a pretty dysfunctional place.”
He also said that Gray experienced trouble at home, which could be considered a red flag. “There were financial problems. There were issues with neglect, lack of money, lack of moving into places that didn’t have any furniture, having utilities shut off, not always having food in the house…those kinds of things. There were reports of some abuse by the dad. I think the dad was using dr*gs. Eventually both parents were using dr*gs, which also had a detrimental effect on the well-being of the family. So it was pretty chaotic,” Dr. Richards added.
Dr. Richards believed Gray lacked stability in life, which had a long-lasting impact on him. “…he already started out as, like, I said, kind of an unusual kid, and I think all of the chaos and so forth led to him being really isolated. A lot of times his mom and dad weren’t putting him in school. They didn’t take him to socialize. He didn’t hang out with other kids. didn’t have, like, a normal childhood where he had friends and things to do. They were always moving, and as I said, he wasn’t in school a fair bit of the time, and it kind of drove him into a sort of a very isolated position, at which point I think he discovered the computer, and then that’s kind of where that whole situation took off.”
Richards noted that Gray’s suicidal ideations could stem from loneliness. “It’s hard to know exactly when. I think it’s waxed and waned over time. He’s dealt with depression and anxiety, and I think at times, depending on circumstances in his life, getting worse or better.”
“He would think about hurting himself or killing himself. He also did some non-lethal self-harming behaviour, cutting himself. There was an instance he said he cut himself once with a butter knife. He had some kind of a…he described it almost like a surgical tool that he used to cut his arms with…I don’t think he ever made an actual suicide attempt, but he thought about it and became, uh, feeling like he wanted to kill himself, but never actually tried.”
Disclaimer: Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available.
