WINDER, Georgia – An intricately made child’s doll. Tissues soaked with tears. Hands held tightly together.

In a tense courtroom setting on Friday, over a dozen family members of the victims and other attendees bore witness to the proceedings as 14-year-old Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray, 54, faced their charges. They appeared one after the other in the same leather chair within Barrow County Court.

Colt Gray is accused of murdering two classmates and two teachers at Apalachee High School on Wednesday. In a notable legal development, his father, Colin Gray, has been charged as an accessory—accused of allowing his son access to the AR-15-style rifle that was used in the school shooting, which occurred about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. Prosecutors noted it’s the first instance in Georgia where a parent has been charged in relation to a school shooting.

The tragic losses on Wednesday included two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, along with teachers Richard Aspinwall, aged 39, and Cristina Irimie, aged 53. In total, eight students and one teacher suffered injuries, according to reports.

During their brief hearings—held just five miles from the school—neither Colt nor Colin Gray spoke much, nor did they turn to face the grieving families seated behind them. Colt Gray, the younger of the two, occasionally pushed his messy, brass-colored hair away from his forehead.

Across the county, schools were closed on Friday, and a memorial with flowers and candles formed at the school’s entrance. The Georgia flag was lowered to half-staff. A few mourners gathered early by the flagpole but left before the hearings began.

“Being physically harmed is not a requirement to be considered a victim,” District Attorney Brad Smith stated after the hearings. “Every person in this community has been affected. Every student in that school has become a victim. I feel the burden of that reality.”

Dressed in green clothing from the Regional Youth Detention Center, Colt Gray appeared small in the oversized chair, his hands shackled to his waist, alongside a public defender. He responded, “Yes, sir,” multiple times when Judge Currie M. Mingledorff II asked whether he understood the charges against him and the potential consequences, including questions about his reading and writing abilities.

Colin Gray, his father, informed the judge that he had completed the 11th grade and earned his GED. Standing over six feet tall, he appeared hunched over, shifting anxiously in the chair that had seemed so large for his son moments earlier. Also in shackles and wearing a striped jumpsuit from Barrow County Detention Center, Colin Gray appeared emotional, sniffing back tears while responding to the judge’s queries alongside his own public defender.

Colin Gray faces serious charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of second-degree cruelty to children, under a new Georgia law that allows prosecution of adults responsible for causing “cruel or excessive physical or mental pain” to minors.

Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder, which makes him eligible for the death penalty as an adult. After his hearing concluded, he was briefly called back before Judge Mingledorff so that the judge could clarify that, as a minor, the maximum penalty he could receive would be life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Neither Colt nor Colin Gray applied for a bond hearing, and both remain in detention.

Following the hearings, District Attorney Smith disclosed that a grand jury would deliberate on potential additional charges against Colt Gray, who had been apprehended before authorities had gathered complete details on the other victims’ conditions.

“There will be more charges for Colt Gray,” Smith stated. “When he was arrested on Wednesday, we hadn’t identified or confirmed the circumstances of the other victims, so we could not charge him for those incidents.  Once those individuals have had time to recover physically, emotionally, and spiritually, we will reach out to them.”

During the hearings on Friday, family members were present but did not engage with the press and were seated apart from the general audience.

Contributing: Eve Chen, YSL News.