Law Enforcement Interviewed Alleged Georgia School Shooter in May 2023

Law enforcement officials arrive to give a press conference outside of Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., on Sept. 4, 2024. Christian Monterrosa/AFP via Getty Images

Law enforcement officers in Georgia had previously interviewed the 14-year-old boy who officials say carried out the mass shooting at Apalachee High School, according to the FBI and a sheriff.

The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center in May 2023 received multiple anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified school and time, the FBI’s office in Atlanta said in a statement on Sept. 4. The online threats contained photographs of guns. The threats were posted to a gaming site, according to Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum.

The FBI was able to figure out the post originated in Georgia and referred the information it developed to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, which located a minor who possibly posted the threats, officials said.

Deputies interviewed the boy and his father. The boy denied making threats online, officials said. The boy’s father said there were guns in the family home for hunting, and that the boy “did not have unsupervised access to them,” the FBI said.

Jackson County officials could not substantiate the threats and did not charge the boy, although they did alert local schools for “continued monitoring of the subject,” Mangum said on Facebook.

“At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels,” the FBI said.

The boy went on to carry out a shooting on Wednesday at Apalachee High School near Winder, according to authorities in Georgia, and was named as Colt Gray, a student at the school. It’s not clear whether Gray has legal representation as of yet.

Gray shot more than a dozen people, killing two students and two teachers, before surrendering after being confronted by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office school resource officer, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told a press conference.

Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told reporters in a briefing later Wednesday that the local Department of Family and Children Services also had previously been in contact with the family of the alleged shooter. Investigators are probing this previous connection for any information that may relate to the shooting.

There is no evidence of another shooter, authorities said.

“There is no evidence of a list of schools being targeted,” Hosey said. “However, there is a lot of evidence that is being recovered and evaluated. We’re going through everything to determine if there is any active threats.”

Hosey said investigators are also looking into whether Gray had any associates helping him. He said that another boy at the same school with a similar name, Colten Gray, was not involved.