Investigators reveal new details of school shooting after guilty plea, emotional victim statements

By Eric Levenson and CNN Staff

(CNN) – Colt Gray, now 16, pleaded guilty Friday to murder and other crimes for the 2024 shooting at his high school in Winder, Georgia, that left four people dead and nine injured.

Gray admitted bringing an AR-15-style rifle to school and opening fire in a math classroom and hallway. The sentencing hearing then shifted to emotional victim impact statements and new evidence from investigators, including Gray’s notebooks and his initial interviews with police.

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 Gray directly, with one survivor telling him: “I hate everything about you.”

Gray, 14 at the time of the shooting, killed students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie. He wounded nine others in the attack at Apalachee High School.

Mason’s mother, Breanna Schermerhorn, said she believes her son would have befriended Gray if he had attended school, adding she could acknowledge the teen “was failed” without excusing his actions. Mason’s sisters followed with powerful testimony. Alanna Schermerhorn-Wallace confronted Gray directly about watching her brother’s final moments on surveillance video, while oldest sister Lilianah Ahmed tearfully recalled the agonizing wait to learn whether Mason had survived.

Taylor Jones, a ninth grader who was shot during the attack, described how she didn’t think she would survive and the long road to recovery that included multiple surgeries. Taylor had to learn how to walk again after being wounded. Other survivors spoke of panic attacks, nightmares and the lasting trauma they continue to carry nearly two years later.

During Friday’s court hearing, Barrow County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jason Smith read part of the teen’s notebook, which was left behind in his second-period classroom, detailing Gray’s plan for the shooting on September 4, 2024.

The courtroom heard audio of Gray during a police interview after the shooting. In it, 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,” Gray said.

Gray said they were both similarly neglected and bullied while growing up.

Investigators later found a shrine of photos to Cruz in Gray’s bedroom.

Earlier this year, his father, Colin Gray, was convicted of murder and manslaughter for buying his son a rifle and not securing it despite knowing he was a risk to others.

Jurors heard audio of Gray’s arrest, during which he asked an officer to tell his father, “Tell him that it wasn’t his fault and that I know he tried his hardest.”

Prosecutors have further evidence to present and Gray’s defense attorneys plan to call witnesses to testify. Gray himself will have an opportunity to speak. Lastly, the judge will decide whether to sentence him to life with the possibility of parole or life without parole.

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