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Apalachee High School shooting suspect set to change plea, documents show

▶ Watch Video: Alleged school shooter Colt Gray gets deadline to enter plea

Colt Gray, the teen accused of fatally shooting two students and two teachers in 2024 at Apalachee High School in Georgia, will appear in court for a “non-negotiated” plea hearing later this month, court documents show.

The documents, filed Friday in Barrow County Superior Court in Winder, Georgia, indicate Gray is set to change his plea when the parties are ordered to appear before the court on July 24 for a plea and sentencing hearing. 

Gray had been charged as an adult and previously pleaded not guilty. The teen is facing a total of 55 counts, including malice murder, aggravated battery and aggravated assault. He faces up to 30 years in prison for the second-degree murder charges and up to 180 years in total. Gray’s attorneys indicated in late 2025 that he was negotiating a plea deal. The judge then set a deadline.

Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, has remained in custody at a juvenile detention center since his arrest.

Apalachee High School Shooting
School shooting suspect Colt Gray exits the Barrow County Courthouse on Dec. 9, 2025, in Winder, Georgia.

Mike Stewart / AP

His father, Colin Gray, was convicted in March of second-degree murder and all other charges. Gray was the first adult charged in connection with a school shooting in Georgia. His prosecution was the third time a parent has been charged for their connection to a mass shooting allegedly carried out by their child.

Prosecutors said he ignored multiple instances of violence conducted by his son throughout the years. Gray admitted to giving his son the rifle used in the school shooting but told the court he did that in hopes of bonding with his child while hunting and shooting at the gun range.

In September 2024, Gray carried a semiautomatic assault-style rifle onto the school bus, with the barrel sticking out of his book bag, wrapped up in a poster board. He left his second-period class and then emerged from a bathroom with the rifle before shooting people in a classroom and hallways.

He allegedly left a notebook with handwritten instructions detailing the steps to prepare for the violence and a diagram of his classroom.

Trump’s DC beautification push navigates troubled waters

(CNN) — At a ceremony in front of the iconic cascading fountain at Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC, earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and top US officials touted President Donald Trump’s efforts to make the city “safe and beautiful.”But less than two weeks later, the historic park that served as Hegseth’s backdrop has become the latest hurdle President Donald Trump is facing in his mission to give the nation’s capital a facelift, as the water in the 13-basin fountain has turned into a murky, rust-orange hue.The fountain had been devoid of water for seven years before the Trump administration repaired and reopened it in May in a $4 million renovation that delighted residents. After the renovation, residents flocked to the park in the evenings, sitting on the steps bordering the fountain, having picnics, and reading books.But this week, parkgoers observed a brown color overtaking the reservoirs.“It looks like mud,” said James Langan, a New York resident visiting DC.The fixture at Meridian Hill Park is one of nine fountains being returned to service under Trump’s March 2025 executive order calling to make DC “safe and beautiful” coinciding with preparations for the nation’s 250th anniversary. When CNN visited the nine fountains scattered across DC this week, only one appeared to still be inoperable, and two had brown-colored water.Some residents and visitors said they welcomed running water at Meridian Hill Park, despite the coloring.“Whenever I’d like come here before, I was kind of disappointed that the water was never on, and it was kind of like overrun with trash,” Washington, DC, resident Jedi Sworobuk told CNN. “I think it’s nice to have, especially in the heat in the summer.”The Interior Department told CNN on Tuesday evening that the brown water at Meridian Hill Park is “sediment as a result of the reopening of two water lines that had been out of service for some time,” noting it expected the water to run clean in the next 24 to 36 hours.A CNN crew observed workers cleaning the cascading basins on Wednesday, following social media buzz about the browning water.On Saturday, the pools of water were still murky, but less orange.The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday on the state of the Meridian Hill fountain, and on the fountains at the General Philip Sheridan statue in Sheridan Circle, which were inactive.The fountain at Meridian Hill Park caught the attention of Alexandra McKenna, a London resident who traveled to DC and made the park a stop on her trip.“It looks pretty gross,” McKenna said, laughing.McKenna pointed to the water at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which has also generated headlines in recent weeks, adding, “It’s kind of a thing going on in Washington at the moment.”The Meridian Hill Park scramble comes after the Reflecting Pool saga dominated conversations in Washington. After Trump called for the pool’s renovation in April, the more than $14 million project has taken on a lifecycle of draining, painting, filling and peeling.Trump alleged vandals gashed the pool’s lining. In recent weeks, at least three people were charged with destruction of property after allegedly removing pieces of blue paint from the pool, and a former Olympian was indicted on that allegation. The canoeist, David Hearn, pleaded not guilty.During a May Cabinet meeting, Trump said most of the fountains were in final stages or fixed.In his recent July Fourth address on the National Mall, Trump declared the city “safe, gleaming, and beautiful again,” though some beautification projects, like the Reflecting Pool, appear to be in progress.The National Park Service said work to restore and rehabilitate historic landscapes will occur in phases, noting that the public may experience closures or limited access at certain sites.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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