Cop Who Interviewed Teen School Shooter Testifies In Father's Trial

Jason Smith, a criminal investigator with the Barrow County Sheriff's Office for nearly 16 years, went to Apalachee High School in Winder after a gunman killed four people and wounded nine other on Sept. 4, 2024. Smith interviewed Colt Gray, then 14 years old, in a classroom after he was arrested, and he secured a warrant for the boy's arrest. The next day, he observed interviewers talk to Colt's younger sister, Jenni, and then interviewed his father, Colin Gray. Smith testified this week in Colin Gray's criminal trial at the Barrow County Courthouse in Winder, and jurors saw a recording of his 2 1/2 interview with Gray. (You can watch the interview here:    • Dad Told Cop He Thought Son’s School Shoot...  ) He testified for about 15 minutes on Tuesday (February 24) and returned to the witness stand on Wednesday. This is his testimony from Tuesday. 02:25 "So when I arrived at the school, there was a large number of people." 03:25 "I entered the school near the attendance office. I ran through the kind of the atrium there where the flagpole is out front." 04:39 "The last thing that I heard over the radio was that they had one suspect in custody. Was unsure if there was a second shooter." 05:03 "So I paired up with some of the SROs and went around and clean or cleared the the north and west areas of the school." 06:06 "I was approached by my supervisor, Lt. Jason Wilkerson, and he asked if I would, if I would conduct an interview with the suspect." 07:05 "When you spoke with him, did he give you his address?" "He did." "Okay. Did you relay that to other people? I did okay. And did you notice at that time any scarring on his arm?" "Not at that time, no." 08:10 :After that, I went to a nearby classroom and reviewed video surveillance footage of the shooting itself." 09:12 "Had y'all gotten hold of a cell phone that belonged to him?" "Yes, sir." "And by y'all, I mean law enforcement?" "Yes, correct." 11:13 "Yes, we actually went to a forensic interview located at the tree house, which is approximately 500 feet behind our building." "Okay, what is the tree house?" "Basically, the tree house is a child advocacy center here in Barrow, and they have forensic interviewers on staff that can interview children in a kind of a neutral, non leading manner." 12:17 "Do you know who it was that brought Jenni Gray to the Tree House?" "Yes, sir." "And who was that?" "That was Colin Gray." "Did you interact with Colin Gray at all at the Tree House?" "I did after Jenni's forensic interview." "Yes." "Okay. And what happened in that interaction with him. Asked Colin Gray if he would accompany back me back to the Criminal Investigations Division to conduct a follow up interview." Background: A gunman killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024. Eight students and one teacher were injured. The victims were Mason Schermerhorn, 14; Christian Angulo, 14; Richard Aspinwall, 39 and a math teacher and defensive coordinator for the school's football team; and Cristina Irimie, 53 and a math teacher. Colin Gray's oldest son, Colt Gray, is awaiting trial on 55 charges, including counts of murder and aggravated assault. The father currently is on trial for 29 charges, including involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder, cruelty to children and reckless conduct. Prosecutors say he gave his son the rifle used in the shooting as a Christmas gift, despite being told by law enforcement to keep guns away from him. The jury was selected from Hall County instead of Barrow County because of extensive pretrial publicity in Barrow County. The trial is being held at the Barrow County Courthouse in Winder. Nicholas Primm, the chief judge in Georgia's Piedmont Judicial Circuit, is presiding. ****************************************************************************** Subscribe to Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff: https://www.legalaffairsandtrials.com/