Newly released video shows police asking Colt Gray about online threats to carry out “a school shooting” a year before he allegedly gunned down four at Apalachee High School — with his dad openly telling deputies the young teen had access to weapons and “we do a lot of shooting.”
The footage released Monday shows two Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputies questioning Gray — who was then just 13 — and his dad, Colin Gray, in May 2023 after receiving a tip from the FBI.
The video opens with Colin, wearing a green shirt and in his underpants, answering the door and being told somebody from his “old address” was using Discord to threaten “to shoot up a school.”
“For real,” the surprised father replies, to which officers tell him his name is connected to the address.
“Do you have any kids living with you or anything?” the officer asks Colin, who is now wearing shorts and holding an energy drink.
“Yeah, Colt Gray,” Colin replies, “He’s my oldest.”
The officer then asks the father if his son plays “a lot of video games.”
“Yeah, he does. Like, all the time,” Colin shares.
The investigators then ask if Colt is home and if there are “any weapons in the house that are accessible to him.”
“They are, I mean, there’s nothing loaded, but they are,” Colin replies. “We actually, we do a lot of shooting, we do a lot of deer hunting. He shot his first deer this year.”
He then tells the officer he’s in “shock” and “a little pissed off” over the allegations and shares that he “didn’t know anything about [Colt] saying s–t like that.”
“I’m going to be mad as hell if he did, and all the guns will go away, and they won’t be accessible to him,” the ticked-off father tells the officers.
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Colin explains that he’s “trying” to teach Colt about “firearms and safety” and is trying to get him “interested” in outdoor activities so he won’t be playing video games as much.
“The picture on my phone is of him with blood on his cheeks shooting his first deer,” Colin says — adding that it was “the greatest day ever.”
Colin then reveals that Colt understands the “seriousness of weapons and what they can do.”
The agitated father then tells investigators that he knows the allegations are “no joke” and that he’s talked with Colt “quite a bit” about “school shootings” and if he’s “getting picked on at school,” to which he says “he is.”
Colin tells the officers he will get his son, but “he’s going to get all red face when you talk to him,” and he wants to keep things “Calm.”
Seconds later, the video cuts to show Colt — wearing a baggy blue T-shirt, gray sweatpants, and baseball hat — emerging nervously onto the porch with his father.
“Did your dad kind of explain everything to you?” one of the investigators asks him.
With his hands in his pockets and slightly tense sway to his stance, Colt mumbles that his dad mentioned “something about…” before he’s cut off by his dad, who interjects with “Shooting up a school.”
“Did you say something about a school shooting?” one of the investigators asks the then 13-year-old Colt.
“Never, I just told him, I don’t know what, maybe they misheard somebody else, I don’t remember saying that,” the teen replies.
“You never, ever said…” the officer tries to confirm before Colt interjects, saying, “No sir, I swear.”
The investigators then ask him if he uses Discord, to which Colt replies, “Yes, sir,” but adds that he hasn’t used it in a few months and believes his account was hacked.
“I mean, I’m not trying to get anyone hemmed up or anything,” the officer says, “but this is some serious stuff.”
“Oh, he knows how serious it is, trust me,” Colin interjects.
The alleged mass killer then insisted he never saw threats of a shooting on the platform, with his father appearing satisfied by his son’s answers.
“I got no choice but to take you at your word,” one investigator tells Colt, but stresses that if it’s revealed he’s lying, it will be a “different story.”
“It’s a really different story,” his father slightly snarls before the video ends.
Both Colt and Colin, 54, face charges of murder in connection to the cold-blooded shooting.
Colt is charged with four counts of murder and will be tried as an adult over the bloody rampage, prosecutors said. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Colin Gray gave his troubled son an AR-15-style rifle for Christmas — the weapon that Colt ended up using in last week’s slaughter, authorities have said.
His father is facing four counts of manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children for being an alleged accessory in the school shooting.
He could serve up to 30 years in prison for each felony murder count and 10 years for each involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children charge.
The 14-year-old alleged gunman’s maternal grandfather, Charles Polhamus, told The Post over the weekend that former son-in-law Colin should bear much of the blame for last week’s bloodbath at Apalachee High School that left two teens and two teachers dead.
“He needs the death penalty,” the grandpa said of his former son-in-law.