The FBI was made aware of the suspected Apalachee High School shooter in 2023 during the course of investigating the source of online threats.
FOX 10 Phoenix reported that “The FBI, in a joint statement with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, revealed Gray was on law enforcement’s radar more than a year before Wednesday’s school shooting.”
And the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted, “In May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting.”
The tips led to then-13-year-old Colt Gray, who was interviewed by county authorities and who denied making the threats.
Gray’s father was interviewed as well, and “the father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them.”
Gray was monitored after being interviewed, but “there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels,” according to the FBI.
On September 4, 2024, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed that 14-year-old Colt Gray was under arrest, charged in the murder of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.