Georgia high school shooting suspect Colt Gary and his father Colin Gray appeared in court on Friday, September 7, morning.
According to NBC News, the teen suspect and his father will remain in police custody after their lawyers decided not to seek bail.
Colt has been charged with four counts of murder for killing two fellow students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, while his father was arrested for allegedly allowing his son to have a weapon.
The decision of the prosecutor to charge the father of a 14-year-old suspect has raised questions about parental responsibilities and whether parents can be held criminally accountable for the actions of their children.
Moreover, the former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin told CNN, “The key issue in the case against the father here will be: recklessness, foreseeability, and how he handled the gun in relation to his son.”
Former New York prosecutor and criminal defence attorney Bernarda Villalona, giving the reference to a similar tragedy that happened in Michigan, asserted that the ‘Michigan case’ highlights that if the parents are ‘in possession of a firearm,’ they are ‘responsible for the actions of your son.’
Villalona explained, “You have to be aware of what is the capability of your son, what they’re going through, and what access they have to these firearms that are capable of causing death.”
Meanwhile, the district attorney of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit, Brad Smith, told a news conference after the hearing that he was ‘not trying to send a message’ that parents should be charged for the child mass shooting.
District attorney said, “I would hope that prosecutors would use every arsenal or every tool in their arsenal to hold people accountable for crimes that they commit.”
To note, Mr. Gary gifted his son an AR-style rifle on Christmas last year, months after the boy was interviewed by police about online school shooting threats and gun pictures.
