WINDER, Ga. — An incident report has revealed new details on a previous FBI investigation into Colt Gray, the 14-year-old suspect accused in the recent Apalachee High School shooting.
Gray, a student at the school, is facing murder charges after the deadly shooting claimed the lives of two students and two teachers on Wednesday. However, this is not the first time Gray has come under scrutiny for potential violence.
On May 21, 2023, Jackson County deputies responded to a tip from the FBI regarding a threat to shoot a middle school on Discord, a popular instant messaging platform.
Investigators followed the lead to a home in Jefferson, Georgia, where Gray and his father had moved last year.
Deputies spoke with both Gray and his father regarding the allegations. When questioned, Colt admitted that he used to have a Discord account but claimed to have deleted it after moving. Jackson County records show they were evicted from their previous home in Jefferson in May of 2022.
He expressed concern, telling deputies that “someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school” and insisted that “he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner," according to the report.
Gray's father told authorities his son had access to hunting rifles that were in the home, but only under strict supervision and that he "does not have unfettered access to them."
The incident report shows that more FBI tips were examined two days later, on May 23. Tips came from people in Australia and California who were concerned about comments made by a Discord user.
The tips included information associated with the user's account, including the account's email address. Investigators determined that the email belonged to Colt Gray and that the account had been created on April 2, 2023 -- after Gray had claimed to have deleted it.
The user profile of the Discord account was also suspicious. Investigators noted that the account name was written in Russian and, when translated, spelled “Lanza,” a reference to Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Gray and his father told deputies that they did not recognize the email associated with the account and that neither of them spoke Russian.
In a follow-up interview, the teen reiterated to authorities that he had stopped using Discord because “too many people kept hacking his account,” and he feared someone might use his information for “nefarious purposes.”
The investigator urged the boy’s father to keep his firearms locked away and told him to keep his son out of school “until this matter could be resolved,” the report said.
The case was cleared shortly after. "Due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI, the allegation that Colt or (his father) is the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated," the report stated.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.