Teen suspect in Apalachee High School mass shooting pleads guilty

• Gray's trial was slated to begin in October in Columbia County, which is roughly 120 miles east of the school where the shooting took place.

Zoom in: According to the Associated Press, Gray, 16, entered the guilty plea without reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.

• Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm asked Gray if he was voluntarily pleading guilty and understood the consequences, and the teen replied, "Yes your honor," the AP reports.
• Gray faces a minimum sentence of life in prison for the murder charge, but the judge will decide if he should be eligible for parole, per the AP.

Flashback: Gray's father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March by a trial jury of second-degree murder and other charges.

• Prosecutors said the elder Gray allowed his son, Colt, to keep an AR-style rifle in his bedroom and that he knew his son had a shrine to the mass shooter who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to the AJC.

Catch up quick: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Colt Gray used an AR-style weapon to kill four people and injure nine others in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school in Winder.

• The victims were identified as two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14 years old, and math teachers Christina Irimie, 53, and Richard Aspinwall, 39, who was also an assistant football coach.

• Of the nine people injured, the GBI said eight were students and one was a teacher.

The big picture: Colin Gray's conviction happened nearly two years after James and Jennifer Crumbley became the first parents in the U.S. to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child.

• The Michigan couple was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after their son killed four students and wounded seven others in a 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County.

What's next: The District Attorney's Office tells Axios sentencing will take place Tuesday, July 28.