Breaking news in the Georgia school
shooting investigation. CNN is just obtaining
the audio of the sheriff's questioning the alleged 14 year
old shooter last year before he allegedly carried out yesterday's mass shooting
at his high school in Georgia, which he killed four people and injured
nine more. Here is what he said when investigators
asked him about tips at the time last year in school that he was allegedly
threatening a school shooting. Have you heard anybody on this court when you were using it
say something like that? Like at that time? Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, I'm
not trying to get anybody can hand over like this is some serious stuff. Oh, he knows how serious it is. Trust me. And I hate to you know, my boss is like,
even, like, you know,
I don't know how all this information is. And if you want to wait for Monday
and follow my line, I'd rather do it now. Because so late because God forbid
something happened, I doing my job,
I mean that I feel pretty bad about this. I mean, it's just words now. It's hard to hear. God forbid
something can happen and now something has and it has come. And CNN is learning the grace. Father told investigators
that he purchased the gun that was used in the killings as a holiday
president present for his son. Isabel Rosales is OUTFRONT. I saw Colt in custody with handcuffs on. He is cooperating with,
as far as I know, Still talking. They still talking. Barrow County Sheriff Judd Smith was one of the first responders
on campus yesterday. It was very nerve wracking going
there, not knowing what I was about to walk into, what I was about to see
and what the situation was. Both he and the entire school staff
are crediting the fast response from law enforcement
to a new security system that was implemented at the school
just one week ago. So at 26,
I think 26 alerts during the year. And then when they started within 5 minutes of the first alert
going off, we had the suspect in custody. The system called Saint TJX works
with ID badges that include a panic button that teachers and staff
can press in an emergency situation. It's an I.D. card and the teachers can kind of alert
and lock the school down. And we got multiple alerts
and told us where this was going on. The 14 year old suspect spent the night
behind bars at a youth detention center. But on Friday,
when he makes his first court appearance, he will be charged with murder
and he will be tried as an adult and handled as an adult, according to a source familiar
with the investigation. New details have emerged
from the search of the suspect's home. Documents found in his bedroom
believed to be written by him reference past school shootings, including the 2018
massacre in Parkland, Florida. But this wasn't the first time the suspect
had a run in with law enforcement. A 2023 investigative report says
that last year, the local sheriff's office received a tip from the FBI about a series
of anonymous threats on a chat platform. Discord to, quote,
shoot up a middle school tomorrow. The tip included photo attachments
with a profile name in Russian that translated to Adam Lanza,
the Sandy Hook shooter. The suspect
and his father were both interviewed. And while his father acknowledged
hunting rifles existed in the home, he said his son did not have unsupervised
access to them. The suspect denied making the threats
to shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing,
even in a joking manner. The case was ultimately cleared
because law enforcement couldn't substantiate the threats. Now we've learned Gray's
father told investigators he bought the AR 15 for his son
after that investigation and several months before he transferred
into Appalachian high school. And authorities are trying to figure out
how the suspect managed to get that rifle into the school,
especially because he was so new. He is enrolled in school two weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago,
and only been in school two days. And, Aaron, we have breaking news just dropping here
in the last minute that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has arrested
Colin Gray, age 54. That is called Gray's father in connection to this deadly
shooting at Appalachian High School. Again, that is Colt Gray's father. He's been charged with the following
four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder
and eight counts of cruelty to children. The GBI will be having a press conference
here in the next half hour. So we expect to get more details
and an understanding of what led them to these charges here very soon. And Erin, I do want to leave you with this
right here. A community united here
as the sun is setting and grief. They are laying flowers, balloons,
paying their respects to, again, the four dead, two teachers,
two students at Apalachee High School and as well just in this
this breaking news. I mean, we're now hearing the audio,
which was just so chilling of the FBI asking questions of the shooter at his prior school
about these threats that that one line. God forbid something happened
and I didn't do my job. When the investigator said
I brought him in to ask these questions. Now, I didn't wait over the weekend. And of course, here we are. Are you learning anything more about,
you know, Colin Gray? I mean, do we even know if he's in custody as you get all of these charges,
which obviously are extremely significant, especially in the context of the fact
that he gave his son this gun. And he is the other voice
we hear that there in that questioning. He was there with his son. Right. And we have stunning reporting
from my colleagues, Marc Moralez and Ryan Young that found that, again, investigators spoke with the father,
with the son back in May of last year. But then about six or seven months later
as a holiday or a Christmas gift, he bought this same gun
that was used to carry out this attack as a gift to his son. I spoke with the sheriff earlier
who told me that anything was on the table, including possible
charges against Collin Gray, his father, Colt
Gray's father, who had custody of his son. And here we are
hours later, and he's been charged. The biggest question again is
how cold allegedly got access to this gun. Right. How it wasn't unlocked, how
he managed to get it inside of the school. That is what led to these charges. And we hope to find out more from the GBI
here in the next half hour. All right. Well, Isabel, as you get that, of course, we're going to come back to you
as we get more information. Thank you very much. And I think also it's important
to emphasize Isabel Ryan and Mike's reporting. And as she's laying that out,
that you hear that questioning. You hear the father brought in
with his son for that questioning. And it was after that questioning since
six months after when he gave his child the gun that his child
then used to murder people. Yesterday in Georgia. I want to go to Tim Clemente now, former
FBI special agent and SWAT team member. Tim, I just as we're hearing this audio,
as I said, it is it is hard to listen to. You heard that agent and the sheriff say say, look, I just God
forbid anything happen, I do my job. I want to bring you in now.
I want to do this questioning. Let me play a bit
more of the audio that we've obtained. You have weapons in the house. I mean, they accessible to him. They are. I mean, there's not nothing loaded,
but they are down. But we
we actually we do a lot of shooting. We do a lot there. He shot his first year this year. So, you know, so like, I'm pretty much in shock,
to be honest with you. Well, I'm a little pissed off
to be even really honest with if that is what was said, that that Tim that he's referring to
or the threats about shooting a school that they brought in, Cole Brey,
the alleged shooter here to ask him about. So seven months after that conversation
when they're talking, that's the father
talking about his son's access to guns. Seven months after that conversation,
he gives him a gun. He gives him a gun for Christmas,
and that is the gun that his son used to kill people yesterday. How do you even process this? You know, Erin, it's almost impossible
to process. Obviously,
the father didn't take those threats seriously, didn't consider his son
as the suspect. That may have made those threats. The visit by the local
sheriff's department investigators to talk to the son and the father
as a 13 year old kid that possibly made those threats, you would think
that it might wake the father up, that maybe he didn't know everything
he should know about his son. And it's it's disheartening
that he would be so stupid as to, you know, he says in the interview
that my son does have access to weapons and, you know, they're not loaded,
but he has access to them and then he just increases that access with an additional rifle
that was tragically used yesterday. I mean, it is it is really incredible. You know,
so you heard the investigator say, you know, my supervisor said, you know,
are you going to do this today or do you want to wait through the weekend
in terms of the questioning of this kid, the alleged shooter,
Cole, who now is 14 at the time, was 13 because God forbid something happened,
I didn't do my job that be. I feel pretty bad about that. Now, you know,
you hear there in the follow up, you know, the the 13 year old saying,
oh, I would never make such a threat. I would never do anything. You know, I know this is serious. I know. So and then it just that was it. It all went away.
When you hear all of this, does it make sense to you
that it kind of went away? I mean, this kid
then transferred to a new school. I don't know what level of awareness
they had about any of this history. Well, you know, Erin,
that's the biggest question that I have, is
what awareness did the new school have? Did his teachers have that? Maybe this is a kid they should be looking
at more closely now? Obviously, a threat is
is significant enough that it goes from the FBI to local authorities
to investigate further. But it's not enough to arrest the kid because they really can't tie
his fingerprints to that threat, even though it may have come from his IP
address, his email address, whatever the connections were, they may not have had enough
to actually charge him with anything if they were able to prove
that it was his threat. But it doesn't mean
you don't look more closely at the kid as a parent, as a teacher,
I school, as administrators, everyone should have been looking
more closely at this kid and his behavior. And obviously they weren't. No. And I mean, I was talking
to the kid who sits next to him, who was sitting next to him in algebra
when he got up to leave. And she said, well,
I didn't think anything of it because he's always skipping class. Right. Already this year, one month into school,
the kid who sits next to him knew that this kid had had issues
and problems just because of that
and no other interaction. But these are things that in the context
of what we of what they knew, obviously
should have, should have stood out.