Mother of Georgia Suspect Called School Minutes Before Shooting, Family Says

The mother of the 14-year-old boy charged with fatally shooting four people at his Georgia high school this week has told relatives that she had called the school on the morning on the attack, warning of an “extreme emergency,” her sister said on Saturday.

Officials said the suspect, Colt Gray, opened fire on Wednesday morning on the campus of Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others. The authorities responded at about 10:30 a.m., but the suspect’s mother, Marcee Gray, apparently called the school at 9:50 a.m., her sister, Annie Brown, said.

Ms. Gray told Ms. Brown in a text message after the shooting that she had notified a counselor at the school, Ms. Brown said. The phone call to the school was first reported on Saturday by The Washington Post, which cited Ms. Brown, text messages and a call log from the family’s shared phone plan that documented a 10-minute phone call from the mother’s number to the school.

Ms. Brown confirmed the details of The Post’s reporting to The New York Times on Saturday evening. And a federal law enforcement official confirmed that the mother called the school shortly before the shooting.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has been handling the investigation, declined to comment on Saturday. Jud Smith, the sheriff for Barrow County, Ga., where the shooting happened, did not immediately reply to messages seeking comment, nor did officials from Barrow County School System.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Adam Goldman contributed reporting.

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