The first image of accused Georgia school shooter Colt Gray has emerged — as his aunt said the 14-year-old was “begging for help” prior to the shooting.
The picture, published by 11 Alive news, shows a smiling Gray wearing a thick necklace and a red Georgia Bulldogs T-shirt in a yearbook photo from 2022, showing the alleged gunman at the age of 12 or 13.
Gray was taken into custody Wednesday minutes after he allegedly opened fire in Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., killing two fellow students and two teachers, according to authorities.
Nine others were taken to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
His aunt, Annie Brown, told the Washington Post on Thursday that the boy had been “begging for help from everybody around him.”
She said he had been struggling with his mental health prior to the shooting.
“The adults around him failed him,” she lamented.
Brown, who lives in Florida, declined to elaborate on her nephew’s mental health struggles, but said she tried to get him help from a distance.
The boy had a troubled home life that exacerbated his issues, she added.
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Brown enrolled Gray at Haymon-Morris Middle School in Barrow County in January, so that he could finish the eighth grade following a period of absenteeism, she told the Washington Post.
