Here's the latest
• Shooter pleads guilty: Colt Gray, now 16, pleaded guilty today to murder and other crimes in the 2024 shooting at his high school in Winder, Georgia, that left four people dead and nine injured.
• Victims speak out: Survivors who were shot and relatives of those who were killed delivered emotional victim impact statements describing how their lives have changed since the attack. Some addressed Colt directly, with one survivor telling him: “I hate everything about you.”
• What’s next: Prosecutors and defense attorneys are presenting evidence this afternoon, and parts of Colt’s notebook that detailed plans to carry out a school shooting were shown in court. The judge is weighing whether to sentence Colt to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.
More people in court leave as police interview audio continues
The judge granted a brief recess about 30 minutes into the police interview audio. When court resumed, it was considerably emptier. Many people, especially those sitting in the family rows, walked out of the courtroom and did not return.
The mother and older sister of victim Mason Schermerhorn were among the people who left court.
During the first part of the police interview, a friend of Schermerhorn’s family walked out, saying, “I’ve gotta go, I can’t take this.”
Colt Gray said he "became obsessed" with Nikolas Cruz
In an interview shortly after the school shooting, Colt Gray told an investigator he “became obsessed” with Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland, Florida school shooter.
“I became obsessed with him on an emotional level because I understood some of the stuff he came through,” Colt said.
“He shot up his school, but on an emotional level I could understand the trauma and stuff that he went through.”
Colt said they were both similarly neglected and bullied while growing up.
Investigators later found a shrine of photos to Cruz in Colt’s bedroom.
Cruz is serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
Victim's family friend walks out of court as police interview audio plays
“I’ve gotta go, I can’t take this,” she said.
As the recording of Colt Gray’s police interview played in the courtroom, a friend of Mason Schermerhorn’s family said, “This is ridiculous.” A few minutes later, she walked out of the room.
The police interview was recorded shortly after the September 2024 mass shooting.
Colt Gray breaks down in interview, describes hesitation before shooting
The courtroom heard audio of Colt Gray during a police interview after the shooting, in which the then-14-year-old described briefly reconsidering his actions before opening fire at Apalachee High School.
“I had a moment in the bathroom of like, I probably shouldn’t do this … the next thing I know I’m f***ing shooting in a classroom, dude,” he says, sobbing.
Gray was extremely emotional on the recording, crying and gasping as he described one of the people he shot in the hallway. “He didn’t even know, dude. He was looking the other way and I just shot him.”
The interview also focused on how Gray accessed the firearm, an AR-15-style rifle. “I just grabbed whatever was closest.”
He told investigators his father had planned to secure his guns days before the shooting, saying, “I told him to hide his guns and he did but I don’t know how I found them,” Gray added.
Gray told the investigator he had been struggling mentally and had been “thinking about it for years.”
“It’s only gotten worse. I finally just now get to the point where I wanted to reach out and get help,” he said regarding his father making a doctor’s appointment for him. “We were so close.”
Colt told investigator he wasn’t trying to justify his actions
During his first interview after the shooting, Colt Gray repeatedly told an investigator “this is f***ing horrible” and that he was not trying to justify his actions.
“Oh my God, this is f***ing horrible man … having no control over these impulses I was doing,” Colt said in the recorded interview, which was played in court.
He added he was not trying to use his “fogginess” to “justify this.”
“I’m not trying to get remorse at all,” he said. “This is f***ing horrible.”
In police interview, Colt Gray apologized and blamed voices in his head
A sobbing, gasping Colt Gray apologized and offered paranoid, hallucinatory explanations for his actions during a police interview shortly after the September 2024 mass shooting.
“I think my teachers are against me … I see them whispering to each other in the hallway and plotting against me,” he said in the interview that was played in court Friday. “I wanted to do something to get them away from me.”
“I’m so f***ing sorry,” he said. “Oh my God.”
He said he heard voices in his head “egging him on” to commit the shooting.
“This is horrible. They’re telling me it’s OK and I did the right thing,” he said.
At that point in the interview, the school bell rang.
"Save me from this cruel world," Colt Gray wrote in 2nd notebook
Colt Gray wrote pleas for help and plans for a school shooting and suicide in a yellow notebook found in his bedroom, Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jason Smith testified Friday.
“Save me from this cruel world. I beg you. Don’t leave me unconscious for all of eternity,” Colt wrote in what Smith said appeared to be a poem. “I just wanna be taken away from this cruel world.”
In other parts of the notebook, he drew a portrait of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz and a sketch of his backpack with a gun sticking out of it. He also drew sketches of a person – labeled “You” – shooting a teacher and other students before killing himself.
On the last page, he wrote an ode to Cruz, calling him “the love of my life.”
After the shooting, investigators found a shrine to Cruz on Colt’s bedroom wall.
Earlier Friday, Smith detailed excerpts from another notebook belonging to Colt that was left in a classroom.
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health issues, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 to speak with a trained counselor or visit the NSPL site.
Investigator's interview with Colt Gray after shooting being played in court
The first interview investigators conducted with Colt Gray, approximately 30 minutes following the shooting, is being played in court now.
In the interview, Colt can be heard whimpering and beginning to sob as he’s asked for his name and birth date.
“I was just contemplating, like, I really shouldn’t do this but my life was already over,” Colt could be heard telling the investigator.
While the interview is being played, Colt is looking down at his lap. The people in the courtroom are completely silent, listening to the recording.
Court proceedings resume after lunch recess
Lead investigator Jason Smith returns to the stand as court reconvenes.
Court is taking a lunch recess
Colt Gray's notebook left in classroom contained detailed plan of shooting
Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jason Smith read part of Colt Gray’s notebook, which was left behind in his second-period classroom, detailing Colt’s plan for the shooting on September 4, 2024.
“So I’ll set my bag down, open it, and put on vest. I’ll take it a moment or two to stay calm and really think about if I want to do this,” an excerpt from the notebook said.
Colt also took notes about making sure no one else entered the bathroom where he planned to ready his weapon. He also mentioned not shooting anyone inside the bathroom, for fear of alerting people.
Smith testified that the notes appeared to have been written before the day of the shooting.
Colt Gray was expressionless, rocked slightly in chair as investigator read writings
As portions of Colt Gray’s notebook writings were presented to the court during lead investigator Jason Smith’s testimony, the 16-year-old remained largely expressionless, showing little visible reaction as everyone in the courtroom heard his own words read aloud.
The only noticeable change came in his body language: Gray gently rocked and twisted his chair back and forth in a repetitive motion while the writings were presented, but his facial expression was unchanged.
"I'm not a killer!" Colt Gray wrote in notebook planning shooting
Writings and drawings in Colt Gray’s notebook that were shown in court Friday indicate detailed plans to carry out a school shooting, lead investigator Jason Smith testified.
“Stop I’m scared! I’m not a killer!” Colt wrote on the first page of the notebook with a drawing of a sad face. “Suicide? 50/50 live? We’ll see!”
Other pages of the notebook appear to be step-by-step plans for the shooting, including his movements around the school, his preferred ammunition and the potential number of victims.
“Ultimately, did he follow that plan?” Smith was asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded.
On several pages, Colt wrote the word “why” dozens of times. He also wrote “Animal,” “I can’t wait,” and drawings of firearms on other pages.
The contents of the notebook have not previously been seen.
Investigator's voice breaks while describing Colt Gray's actions the morning of the shooting
Investigator Jason Smith with the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office is now on the stand, going over Colt Gray’s movements inside Apalachee High School on the morning of the shooting.
Smith took a couple pauses, having trouble continuing with his description of events. He took sips of water, before continuing with a steady voice.
When Smith described Colt firing at victim Mason Schermerhorn, audience members began to sniff and Mason’s mother started crying.
Meanwhile, Colt is looking forward and watching closely, at times slightly shifting in his chair, while blinking frequently.
Apalachee principal says school community is still rebuilding
Apalachee High School principal Jessica Rehberg gave the final victim impact statement as she explained how the shooting has changed teachers, administrators, students and the community at large.
“The trauma thrust on this once rural hometown is unnatural. The reckless and selfish choices of Colt Gray deserve the harshest consequences,” she said.
“The act destroyed a learning community that will take years to reconstruct, if even possible, and who knows what could have been without the time, energy, new personnel and resources expended daily just to make it possible for students and faculty to be able to teach and learn,” she said.
Still, she said the community is working to rebuild as they near the second anniversary of the attack. The faculty met this morning to prepare for the coming start of the school year and thought of the victims, she said.
“We carry their legacy forward daily, even through dark times, and I ask (that) their murderer be placed where he feels the depths of what he has done,” Rehberg said.
Mother of wounded student: 'Surviving is not the same as being untouched' by the tragedy
Sarah Beaver, the mother of wounded student Jaxson Beaver, wrote a victim impact statement on behalf of her son describing the lasting physical and emotional toll the shooting has taken. The statement was read aloud in court by Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Alix Daniel.
“I stand before you as the mother of a child who survived that day, but surviving is not the same as being untouched by it,” Beaver wrote. “Eight to nine pieces of metal are permanently embedded in his thigh. He is forced to carry the literal weight of a mass shooting inside his own flesh every single day.”
Beaver said she longs for the days when she believed schools were still safe spaces.
“Before September 4, 2024 … I believed that if I hugged my child goodbye in the morning, I would see him that afternoon,” she wrote. “I believed tragedies like this happen somewhere else. And that version of me no longer exists.”
Beaver described Colt Gray as both a 14-year-old “failed by the very people and systems that were supposed to protect him” and as the person who stole the childhoods of others.
Because of Colt’s actions, children now know what gunfire sounds like inside their school, Beaver wrote. And parents understand the fear of waiting “for a phone call that may never come.”
What we learned from the victim impact statements
In about a dozen victim impact statements, a few overarching themes came through at Colt Gray’s sentencing hearing:
Colt could have had friends: The teen had only attended Apalachee High School for a few days before he carried out the shooting in September 2024. Several speakers said he could have made friends if he had just given the school a chance.
“I have no doubt in my mind, if Colt had actually attended school, as he should have, that Mason would have befriended him,” said Breanna Schermerhorn, the mother of victim Mason Schermerhorn.
Empathy for him: The trial of Colt’s father, Colin Gray, revealed the teen’s tumultuous upbringing, which included several moves and evictions, his mother’s struggles with drug addiction, and his father’s inability to enroll him in school. Several speakers noted their empathy for his difficult childhood.
“He is a product of two people that did not deserve the privilege of bringing life into this world,” Mason Schermerhorn’s oldest sister Lilianah Ahmed said.
Mourning what was lost: Most of all, the families mourned the loss of their loved ones, and the survivors mourned their loss of innocence.
“He brought kindness, laughter, and strength into our lives, and his absence is felt every single day,” said Shayna Aspinwall, the wife of victim Richard Aspinwall. “The grief of losing him is constant.”
The dark, loud noises, and being home alone now fill victim with fear, she says
The remaining impact statements are written and being read by Barrow County Assistant District Attorney Alix Daniel.
The first statement is written by student Michaela Brown, who was one of the students inside the classroom Colt Gray fired into, discussed the fears she now lives with.
“I’ve felt scared to even go in the dark to take my dogs out to use the bathroom. Loud noises, like doors slamming hard, make me jump, because they remind me what could happen.”
“It’s hard to feel relaxed or normal when things like that are always in the back of my mind. I also get nervous being home alone because I’m thinking someone’s going to break in and hurt me. I don’t feel as safe as I used to before,” Michaela wrote.
“This situation shows how deeply events like this can impact students mentally and emotionally. It’s not just something that happens and goes away; it stays with people,” she added.
Victim describes lasting anxiety after shooting
Aryanna Norman said the Apalachee High School mass shooting changed every part of her life, and the trauma affects her every day nearly two years later.
“September 4th (2024) is a day I will never look at the same again,” she told the court during her victim impact statement. Aryanna said the violence left the Barrow County community grappling with “chaos, high anxiety, and tragedy” and has deeply affected her mental health.
She said she has been prescribed medication for anxiety because of a constant fear that another tragedy could happen. Aryanna described recurring nightmares that required help to fall back asleep and said even months later, routine activities like walking through her neighborhood left her feeling uneasy.
Aryanna said she no longer feels safe at school, explaining she’s constantly looking over her shoulder and is startled by loud noises. Fireworks, she said, now sound like gunshots, leaving her anxious. She scans for escape routes wherever she goes because she fears becoming “trapped” again.
“The people at Apalachee could have been friends with Colt, but he decided to take a different route. And for this, he deserves whatever punishment he is giving,” Aryanna said.
Victim impact statements have finished, and court is in recess
The emotional victim impact statements – more than an hour of comments from survivors who were shot as well as relatives of those killed – have finished. The court is now in recess.
