Mother of Boy Who Allegedly Killed Four at Apalachee High: My Son ‘Is Not a Monster’

The mother of the 14-year-old boy who allegedly shot and killed four at Apalachee High School and wounded numerous others says her son “is not a monster.”

Marcee Gray, the alleged attacker’s mother, expressed her feelings on the shooting and her 14-year-old son via a letter of apology.

The letter was posted by Action News 5 and said, in part:

I want to say that I am so sorry from the bottom of my heart. If I could take the place of Mason and Christian [the fourteen-year-old students who were killed], I would without a second thought. As a parent, I’ve always said that the loss of one of my children would be the only thing that I wouldn’t be able to come back from. I feel all of your pain and devastation. I grieve and cry with you. My heart breaks for the two teachers who gave their lives while in the service of teaching and protecting our children. We are all in a living nightmare right now, and I will personally never forgive myself for what has happened. My son Colt is not a monster.

Gray went on to describe her son, i.e., the alleged attacker, as “quiet, thoughtful, caring, funny, and extremely intelligent.”

The shooting that killed four at Apalachee High School occurred September 4, 2024. Two days later, Breitbart News reported that the mother of the alleged attacker had arrests for drugs and domestic violence.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) noted the 14-year-old suspect’s mother “has as a criminal record going back 17 years.”

However, on the morning the shooting occurred, Gray called the school 30 minutes before shots were fired, alerting them to an “extreme emergency” and telling them to locate her son. And Annie Brown, the attacker’s aunt, reportedly informed a relative that the alleged attacker was having “homicidal and suicidal thoughts” a week prior to the attack.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly: awrhawkins@breitbart.com.