The mother of suspected Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray told her family that she had called the school on the morning of the incident to warn them of an "extreme emergency" before her son opened fire inside the classroom and allegedly killed four people and injured several others before he was arrested.
Marcee Gray, the suspect's mother, was seen in text messages shared by The Washington Post, telling her family: "I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him." Marcee who herself has a long criminal history including drug possession, tried to alert the school beforehand.
Mom's Desperate Text Messages
According to the outlet, a call log from the family's shared phone plan suggests that Marcee Gray made a 10-minute call to the school at 9:50 a.m. on Wednesday, roughly 30 minutes before Colt allegedly began shooting.
Marcee's father, Charles Polhamus, told The New York Post that Colt had sent an apology text to his mother before the shooting, which led her to contact the school.
"I'm sorry, mom," the text read.
Marcee immediately hopped into her car and drove toward the school, which was over three hours away. However, she found halfway there that the tragedy she was trying to prevent had already occurred.
According to Gray's sister, Annie Brown, who spoke to the NY Post, a school counselor told Marcee that her son had been discussing school shootings earlier that day. Reports soon emerged that Apalachee High School had received a warning that the tragedy could unfold.
Marcee reportedly sent texts to her family stating, "I was the one who notified the school counselor at the high school."
Brown said that Marcee called the school because she had learned something alarming that led her to fear an "impending disaster," although the specifics of what she found were not detailed.
Brown also said that Marcee was told by a counselor that her son had been behaving disturbingly that morning and had been talking ominously about school shootings.
At the same time, Colt's classmate Lyela Sayarath, who had previously shared a chilling account of her near escape from the shooting, told the outlet that a school administrator had gone to locate Colt in their class.
Too Late to Prevent the Massacre
Sayarath had previously told CNN that Colt was known for skipping classes, and she assumed that's what he was doing when he left just before the administrator arrived.
However, confusion arose because another student with a similar name was also in the class. Neither student was present when the administrator entered the room, and the administrator mistakenly took the backpack of the student with the similar name.
The shooting began shortly afterward. The texts provide insight into how Colt's family perceived his mental state and how close school officials came to locating him before he allegedly began the shooting.
In a message sent after the shooting, Marcee asked her sister why officials had not located her son sooner, expressing her confusion about the delay: "I'm curious to know what happened during that time" as it seemed like there was a long period for them to intervene.
Other text exchanges from Marcee's sister reveal that both Colt's school and family were aware of his worsening mental health at least a week prior to the shooting.
In one message, Brown reportedly told a relative that Colt was having "homicidal and suicidal thoughts," adding, "He shouldn't have had a gun, and he should've been in THERAPY months ago."
It comes as Colt's father, Colin Gray, was charged with several offenses, including murder. Prosecutors allege that he provided his son with the weapon despite knowing he posed a threat to himself and others. Both Colin Gray and his son are facing life sentences.
Brown said that her nephew had spent months "begging" for mental health support but the "adults around him failed him."
Marcee had earlier been restricted by a court order from having extensive contact with Colt's father, Colin, after she admitted to a charge of family violence in December.
The couple separated in 2022 following an eviction, and their family faced involvement with Georgia's child welfare services during this period of upheaval.
In May 2023, local cops visited the family after receiving an FBI tip about potential threats of a school shooting. Colt denied making these threats, and Colin told the police that although he kept hunting rifles in the home, his son was not permitted to handle them unsupervised.
