Overview
- Colt Gray, now 16, entered a non‑negotiated guilty plea on July 24, 2026 to all 55 counts tied to the Sept. 4, 2024 attack that killed two students and two teachers and wounded others.
- Because the plea is non‑negotiated, Judge Nicholas Primm alone will decide Gray’s punishment after hearing victim testimony, surveillance and crime‑scene evidence, 911 calls, and records the prosecution plans to introduce.
- Investigators say Gray meticulously planned the assault by hiding an assault‑style rifle in poster board on a school bus, leaving a classroom notebook with step‑by‑step instructions and a casualty diagram, and keeping a shrine to a prior shooter.
- Victims’ family members delivered emotional impact statements urging life without parole, while the defense signaled it will call a psychologist, a juvenile detention counselor, and family members to argue mitigation.
- The case highlights parental liability after a jury in March convicted Colt’s father, Colin Gray, for supplying the rifle; the elder Gray is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, and the trial has already spurred state school‑safety measures.