Colt Gray, a 14-year-old teen who authorities said admitted to a mass shooting at his school in Georgia, has pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
Gray's lawyers filed papers entering the not-guilty plea after the teen was indicted last Thursday on a total of 55 counts, including four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, 25 counts of aggravated assault, and multiple counts of cruelty to children.
In addition, the lawyers also filed papers stating Gray is waiving an arraignment hearing scheduled for Nov. 21. He is charged as an adult.
Gray is currently being held in a juvenile detention center. Gray has not sought to be released on bail, according to AP News.
What Is Gray Accused Of?
The 14-year-old is accused of opening fire at the Apalachee High School in Winder, GA, on Sept. 4. That shooting led to the deaths of four victims, including 53-year-old teacher Christina Irmie, 39-year-old teacher Richard Aspinwall and 14-year-old students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn. The shooting also injured eight other students and one teacher.
A preliminary hearing of the case was conducted last Wednesday. There, police testified that Gray had begun shooting people during his second-period class using a semiautomatic assault-style rifle he carried to school that morning.
Authorities revealed that they found Gray's notebook containing his plans for the shooting. A diagram in the notebook found that Gray estimated he could kill at least 26 people and wound 13 others during his second-period classroom.
"Shoot the teacher first," one of the messages in the notebook read, per NPR.
Police also found a note in his home's game room where Gray said the shooting was "out of my control."
Furthermore, Colt had set up a shrine to school shootings at home. One of the images on the shrine was Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland, Florida mass shooter who killed 17 students and staffers in February 2018, as reported by CNN.
Missed Signs
Authorities claimed there had been signs that Gray was a troubled child. In May 2023, the teen was linked to making online threats to commit a school shooting. He denied making the threat at the time.
He had also previously suffered a "severe anxiety attack" and made comments about suicide. A guidance counselor at Apalachee said the teen was "shaking" uncontrollably but denied wanting to harm himself.
