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, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of child abuse, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Authorities charged her son, Colt Gray, with four counts of murder and said they plan to prosecute him as an adult.
A shooting incident that took place on Wednesday at Apalachee High School in the town of Winder left two teachers and two students dead, and nine others were injured.
“These charges stem from knowingly allowing her son Colton to have a weapon,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) Director Chris Hosey at a press conference Thursday evening.
He promised that agents will “work diligently to complete this investigation as we move forward”.
Officials are investigating whether the AR weapon used in the attack was a gift bought by Mr Gray in December 2023, law enforcement sources told CBS News, the BBC’s US affiliate.
CNN reported that the weapon was a Christmas gift to his son.
In May 2023, the FBI sent local sheriff’s deputies to interview the boy and his father after receiving reports of school shooting threats posted online.
The boy, who was 13 at the time, denied that he wrote that.
The father told investigators that “he had hunting rifles in the house, but this person did not have access to them without supervision,” the FBI said in a statement Wednesday.
“At that time, there was no probable cause to make an arrest or take other legal action at the local, state or federal levels,” the FBI said in a statement.
In April, the parents of a Michigan teenager who killed four students with a gun they bought for him days before the shooting were convicted for their role in the attack.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were both found guilty of murder and each was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
The case was thought to be the first time that the parents of a mass shooting child have been charged with a crime.
This is a breaking story and will be updated
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