The troubled life of 14-year-old Colt Gray includes an alleged Discord alias that was a reference to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza.

The shooting suspect who killed four people at Apalachee High School on Wednesday will be charged with murder and tried as an adult for the killings of two teachers and two students.

However, this was not the first interaction law enforcement had with Gray before he became a student at Apalachee High School.

On May 22, 2023, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office officers went to the home of his father, Colin Gray, with whom he was staying, to investigate multiple FBI tips from a Discord user who claimed that the teenager had allegedly threatened to shoot up a high school the following day.

In a police report obtained by NewsweekColin Gray told officials his family had been evicted from their previous address in Jefferson, Ga. He and his wife had divorced, and she had taken their two younger children, while he and Colt had moved in together.

Colin Gray said his son had problems at West Jackson Middle School in Hoschton, Georgia, and went to Jefferson Middle School, about 17 minutes away, where things improved.

Ed Hooper, a spokesman for the Jackson County School System, confirmed that Newsweek that Colt Gray completed the sixth grade at West Jackson Middle School and began the seventh grade on July 29, 2022. He was dismissed from school on August 19, 2022.

Hooper was unable to discuss any potential disciplinary measures imposed on Colin Gray due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, also known as FERPA laws. Hooper confirmed that the bomb threat did not occur at their school.

Colin Gray said he had hunting rifles at home but was not allowed to use them without supervision.

Officials also spoke with Colt, who appeared “calm and reserved.” The then-13-year-old said he had a Discord account but deleted it before moving in with his father because it was constantly being hacked. Colt said someone accused him of threatening to shoot up the school, but he would never say something like that, even as a joke.

Discord is a real-time text, voice, and video chat platform frequently used by gamers and streamers.

Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter who tried to kill former President Donald Trump, also had a Discord that was “rarely used,” a spokesperson for the platform said. Crooks, however, posted an ominous message on the gaming platform Steam.

“July 13 will be my premiere, watch how it develops,” he wrote.

The FBI’s leads included an email address belonging to Colt Gray linked to the Discord account in question. IP addresses from around the time the family was evicted from their home show the Discord account was used in either Fort Valley or Statesboro, Georgia, and possibly Buffalo, New York.

The username of the Discord account associated with Colt Gray was written in Russian, officials said. Translated into English, the name is “Lanza,” allegedly referring to Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter. On Dec. 14, 2012, Lanza shot and killed 20 people between the ages of 6 and 7, as well as six adult staff members. He shot himself in the head as first responders arrived.

Colin Gray told officials that his son did not know or speak Russian. Investigators determined that the allegation that Colin Gray or Colt Gray was behind the Discord account could not be proven.

Newsweek Attempts to contact Colin Gray were unsuccessful.

During a press conference late Wednesday evening, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey told reporters that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing and that officers are still trying to determine how Colt Gray managed to get the “AR-style platform weapon” into the school building.

“We’re still trying to piece together a lot of the timeline from when he came to school today to the incident,” Hosey added.

The victims included two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. The other victims who were hospitalized after the shooting are expected to survive their injuries; Hosey said the nine people injured “will recover well.”

“We do not expect any additional fatalities at this time,” Hosey said.

Lyela Sayarat, a student at Apalachee High School, described Colt Gray as “pretty quiet” and told CNN that he often skipped school.

“Even when he wanted to talk, he would respond with one word or give short statements,” Sayarath said.

How should police respond to shooting threats?

Newsweek spoke with several experts in the field of gun violence prevention about the importance of addressing the threat of school shootings.

“Law enforcement should certainly take threats of school violence seriously and use the tools at their disposal to mitigate those threats,” said Lindsay Nichols, policy director at GIFFORDS Law Center. “The legal tools available to law enforcement vary dramatically from state to state.

Joshua Horwitz, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Violence Solutions, explained that law enforcement officers often do not have the tools necessary to properly investigate a threat.

“Law enforcement in Georgia and 29 states do not have access to Red Flag laws, and legislators should provide law enforcement with this tool so that they don’t have to wait for a tragedy or even a violent crime to happen. They can be proactive,” Horwitz said.

Dr. Ron Avi Astor, a professor at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs and School of Education, said that once officials determine there is no imminent threat, they often take no further action.

“I think a lot of people in law enforcement feel like their hands are tied legally,” Astor said.

While little is known about the suspect’s motives, Astor explained that school shooting perpetrators share certain common characteristics.

“A lot of these shooters also have suicidal thoughts,” Astor said. “But suicidal thoughts are fleeting, and they may have thought about it at one point and then, when they were faced with the actual moment, changed their mind.”

Astor said the shooters’ common goal was to terrorize the public on a nationwide level.

“It’s not always about targeting one person or someone with mental health issues, as has been done in Congress and (with) others,” Astor said. “The goal is to create terror in every child and parent in the United States, and they’re using the media to do that.”

Nichols said these types of tragedies are preventable.

“They shouldn’t happen and they’re traumatizing an entire generation,” Nichols said.

Horwitz encouraged people to advocate for firearm safety and contact their elected officials.

“It will take some time and organization, but elected officials are counting on people to forget about things and do nothing. Don’t be one of those people,” Horwitz said.

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