WINDER, Georgia — Colt Gray, the baby-face Georgia school shooting suspect who is charged with murdering two classmates and two teachers, grew up in a broken and neglectful home, which police and child services visited on a regular basis, a former neighbor and landlord tell The Post.
His mother, Marcee, 43, has a lengthy rap sheet with drug and domestic violence arrests. And his father Colin, 54, allegedly bought his troubled son an AR-15 rifle for Christmas — and now faces charges of his own for supplying the weapon used in the shooting.
Lauren Vickers, who lived next-door to the Grays in Jefferson, Georgia, said there were “problems immediately” when the Grays and their three children moved into the well-manicured neighborhood 60 miles east of Atlanta in 2022.
“There were nights where the mom would lock him and his sister out the house. And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like ‘Mom! mom! mom!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating,” she said.
Vickers said that sometimes the youngest child would come to her back yard asking for food.
“No clean clothes, I’m not exaggerating.”
“It was constant abuse,” she said. “It’s very, very sad.”
Gray’s maternal grandfather told CNN Thursday night that he was “just a good kid” who “lived in an environment that was hostile.”
“His dad beat up on him, I mean, I’m not talking about physical, but screaming and hollering, and he did the same thing to my daughter,” Charles Polhamus said, adding that the boy did not show any outward anger issues but was affected by his upbringing.
Now, investigators seeking to understand the suspect’s motive are looking into his family’s previous contacts with the state’s child protective services agency, the GBI director said Wednesday.
Colt, 14, was charged as an adult on Thursday with four counts of murder after Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder.
He is expected to appear in court on Friday.
Colt’s aunt, Annie Brown, told the Washington Post that her nephew was struggling with mental health issues, and had been “begging for help from everybody around him” months before the massacre.
“The adults around him failed him,” she said.
His mom Marcee, who attended Georgia Southern University and listed her profession on LinkedIn as a “quality engineer” at a local manufacturer, also has a lengthy criminal history spanning 17 years and four Georgia counties, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Her rap sheet includes domestic violence, drug possession, property damage and various traffic violations, including driving under the influence charges. She also faced civil fraud charges over the purchase of a used vehicle, and was locked up in Ben Hill County as recently as April.
She later left the family home, according to her social media accounts and neighbors.
Colt’s father, Colin, works in construction, according to Vickers.
Neither parent responded to The Post’s requests for comment.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office visited the Grays’ Jefferson home in May 2023 following up on an FBI report that Colt had threatened to shoot up his middle school on Discord, a messaging app popular with gamers.
However, the case was shelved after a few days when police were unable to confirm key details of the FBI’s investigation.
Colin told the cops they kept several hunting rifles in the house, which he admitted Colt had occasional access to under supervision. The officers urged him to keep the firearms under lock and key, and advised they keep Colt out of school “until this matter could be resolved,” but school was already out for the year.
Law enforcement sources told The Post that in December 2023 — despite the visit from the cops — Colin bought an AR-style assault rifle for Colt for Christmas.
That weapon was used in Wednesday’s shooting.
Vickers, the neighbor, said that while the family was living next door, it was the mom who drew the most attention.
“I would find her in the driveway, passed out, with the car running and blaring music early in the morning,” Vickers said, speaking of Marcee — whom she claims habitually abused drugs and alcohol.
“She would have taken the little one to daycare or pre-K. She was driving him like that,” she said of Gray’s younger brother.
She said Colt didn’t speak much, but that she’d often see him skipping school, wandering around the woods and in the unbuilt houses at nearby developments.
Asked to characterize Colt, Vickers said, “he wasn’t a bully or a mean kid. He didn’t say much. He was so quiet,” she said, noting that he was a classmate of her daughter, Berlin.
Although she called child services several times, Vickers said, “they came, talked to me, and did nothing.”
Colt’s maternal grandfather
At the same time, Gray’s mother and maternal grandfather have accused Gray’s father of being verbally abusive toward his family for years.
“He was just a good kid, but he lived in an environment that was hostile,” Charles Polhamus said of Colt Gray, his grandson, in an interview with CNN. “His dad beat up on him, I mean, I’m not talking about physical, but screaming and hollering, and he did the same thing to my daughter.”
The grandfather said he had never seen Colt Gray show any kind of anger problems, but that the turbulent family life had affected the teenager.
Now, investigators seeking to understand the suspect’s motive are looking into his family’s previous contacts with the state’s child protective services agency, the GBI director said Wednesday.
A former landlord of the Grays, who asked his name not be used, described Marcee as “a f–k up,” while crediting the father as, “trying his best to be a stand-up guy.”
“She was locking them out in inclement weather. Freezing weather,” he said, corroborating Vickers’ account.
He said he stopped by the house to speak to Colin once neighbors started complaining.
“The neighbors reported [Marcee] was driving down the street in her car, drunk, fell out the car, with the door open and the engine running. As a landlord, I can’t tolerate this kind of behavior in a neighborhood where a tenant might be putting other children at risk,” he said,.
“I spoke to the husband and asked him, ‘do you know your children are being locked out of the house?’”
The landlord said Colin told him Marcee had been battling drug and alcohol addiction and that the couple was headed for divorce.
He then reported her to Georgia Division of Family & Children Services and removed her from the lease, leaving Colin to fend for himself until he eventually moved out on his own accord.
“I think the man really went through it. I can’t imagine he didn’t seek help for these children because they had been quite traumatized,” the landlord said.
He said although he never spoke to Colt, he got the impression that he “really wanted to be with his father.”
Asked about the Apalachee High School shooting, the landlord said, “I certainly wouldn’t think for a minute this was going to happen. There’s no way to predict this,” he said.
“All I can say is this child has fallen between the cracks of getting the help from the social network that we should have in place to help these children,” he said.
