Father of suspect in Georgia school shooting is arrested

The father of a 14-year-old boy accused of killing four people at his high school in the US state of Georgia has been arrested.

Colin Gray, 54, was charged on Thursday with involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities have charged his son, Colt Gray, with four counts of murder and said they plan to prosecute him as an adult.

The shooting on Wednesday at Apalachee High School in the city of Winder left two teachers and two students dead, and nine others injured.

In May 2023, the FBI sent local sheriff’s deputies to interview the boy and his father after being alerted to threats to commit a school shooting posted online.

The boy, who was 13 at the time, denied that he had posted the comments.

His father told investigators that “he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them", the FBI said in a statement on Wednesday.

"At the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels," the FBI statement said.

Officials plan to hold a news conference on Thursday evening to address the latest developments.

In April, the parents of a Michigan teenager who killed four students with a gun they purchased for him just days before the shooting were sentenced for their role in the attack.

James and Jennifer Crumbley were both found guilty of manslaughter and each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.

The case was thought to be the first time the parents of a child who carried out a mass shooting have been held criminally liable.

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