A 14-year-old boy accused of shooting 13 people, killing four, at Apalachee High School Wednesday morning claimed his Discord account was hacked when Jackson County deputies investigated a school threat there in May of 2023.
That's according to documents released Thursday by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. Colt Gray, age 14, was arrested Wednesday after Barrow County authorities said he was the shooter that killed four and injured nine others just two days after the Labor Day weekend.
The documents say the Jackson County Sheriff's Office was contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on May 21, 2023 about a tip they had received from a user in a Discord chat group. The tip alleged that the suspect had threatened to "shoot up a middle school tomorrow."
Discord is an online chat website primarily used for gaming.
The tip alleged that the threat came from a home on Rice Creek Court in the Traditions neighborhood in western Jackson County, but deputies eventually learned that the suspect's family had recently been evicted from that residence and were living at a home on River Mist Circle in the city of Jefferson.
Deputies then went to that home and found Colt Gray and his father, Colin.
"Colt stated he used to have a Discord account, but deleted it prior to moving from their previous address," the investigating deputy's report said. "Colt expressed concerns that someone is accusing him of threatening to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner."
Transcripts of the deputy's interview with Gray show that the boy claimed his account had been hacked, leading to him no longer using Discord. However, a further investigation showed that both the account and the accounts accusing Gray of making threats were coming from IP addresses across the country and even one in Western Australia.
Also, the account that the tip claimed was Gray's appeared to have a username referencing a previous school shooting in the United States.
"The user profile name is written in Russian. Translation of the Russian letters spells out the name Lanza, referring to Adam Lanza, who is the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooter in Newtown, Connecticut," the documents say.
The investigation also reportedly uncovered that Colt Gray had been troubled at school and had an unstable family life. Colin and his wife, Marcee, had recently divorced, with Marcee taking custody of the couple's two younger children and Colin taking custody of Colt.
Records show that Marcee Gray was arrested in Barrow County in 2023 on a list of charges including destruction of property, drug possession and concealing the identity of a vehicle.
"Colin conveyed that his 13-year-old son had some problems at West Jackson Middle School and now that he is going to Jefferson Middle School it has gotten a lot better," documents said.
Deputies ultimately said they did not find sufficient evidence to arrest Colt Gray.
"At this time, due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI, the allegation that Colt or Colin is the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated," the documents said. "The case will be exceptionally cleared."
Deputies reportedly encouraged Colin Gray to keep his firearms out of reach of Colt and to make sure Colt's identity and online information remained secure.
Jackson County Sheriff Mangum spoke Thursday after the shooting at Apalachee.
"I'm devastated. I'm heartbroken that that happened over there and my heart goes out to the family...it's a terrible tragedy and its said that there's such evil in our society," Mangum said. "(Our investigator) did all he could do at the time with what he had...I came back over to Jackson County yesterday (after the shooting) and got copies of everything that we had and carried it back over to Barrow County to Apalachee to give to the FBI and the GBI and the sheriff has it."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2024/9/1260808/apalachee-shooting-suspect-claimed-discord-account-was-hacked-in-2023-jackson-co-threat-investigation