(NewsNation) — The teenager charged with opening fire Wednesday at a Georgia high school, killing two teachers and two students, made his first court appearance Friday.
Colt Gray, 14, is charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder in connection with a shooting at Apalachee High School, about 50 miles from Atlanta.
Gray is expected to make a virtual court appearance at 8:30 a.m. ET for an arraignment. Cases vary, but the proceeding generally involves prosecutors reading the charges into the official record. A judge may also ask the person facing charges to enter an initial plea at that time.
The court appearance comes hours after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced charges against the suspected shooter’s 54-year-old father Colin Gray. He faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
Investigators haven’t gone into detail about charges beyond saying they’re directly connected with his son’s actions and allegedly allowing him to possess a weapon.
Police in Georgia spent much of Thursday questioning the teenager, but it wasn’t their first time speaking with him.
The teenager denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him last year about a reported threat made on the messaging platform Discord, according to a sheriff’s report obtained by The Associated Press.
The FBI said it received several anonymous tips last May about online threats — including photos of guns.
The boy’s father also told investigators he had hunting guns in their home but said his son didn’t have unfettered access to them.
Meanwhile, court records show the boy’s mother, who is not charged in connection with the shooting, may be barred from contacting Colin Gray, her estranged husband, unless through a third party. The stipulation was a condition of the mother’s probation stemming from an unrelated December charge.
Outside the school, there’s a growing memorial.
“I heard the banging, I heard the gunshots, and I heard the police, and I heard the sirens,” a senior student told NewsNation.
“When he walked out of the class, he did see a body on the floor and he assumed that that was the shooter that was killed by the cop, but apparently that’s not the case,” her father said.
A new security system installed last week may have prevented further tragedy.
A special badge with a panic button worn by staff at the school allowed teachers to discreetly request emergency help in their exact location.