Additional Coverage:
- Georgia students detail horrors of 2024 school shooting at trial of accused gunman’s father (nbcnews.com)
Winder, GA – In a somber courtroom this Tuesday, the second day of trial for Colin Gray saw emotional testimony from students injured in the tragic September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School. Gray faces serious charges, including two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 20 counts of cruelty to children, and five counts of reckless conduct, stemming from allegations that he provided his son, Colt Gray, with access to the firearm used in the incident. Colt Gray, charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder, awaits his own trial.
Fourteen minors recounted the harrowing events of September 4, when Colt Gray allegedly opened fire, claiming the lives of two students, Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, as well as two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Nine others were wounded in the attack.
‘I reached down and noticed that I got hit’
Nautica Watson, a student, vividly recalled the moment a loud bang shattered the peace of her second-period class. “I remember my teacher falling to the floor in front of me,” Watson testified.
“I remember seeing her fall down before I turned around and saw there was somebody at the door with like a weapon.” As she and her classmates ducked for cover, her teacher pulled her aside, urging her to stay awake.
Watson described a “really hot spot at the bottom of my leg” before realizing she had been shot. Her friend, Brittany, quickly wrapped her jacket around the wound before Watson lost consciousness.
The lasting impact of that day prevents Watson from playing sports due to persistent leg pain, and she described feeling constant paranoia at school. Months after the shooting, nightmares plagued her, and she expressed a reluctance to use school bathrooms or be near doors, preferring to stay close to others.
Natalie Griffith, present in her algebra class, described a ringing in her ear followed by the sight of blood on her left wrist, where she had been shot twice. Screaming, she fell to the floor.
As first responders carried her out, Griffith’s primary concerns were for her friend in a nearby classroom and the fear of her own death and its impact on her parents. She remembered seeing the shooter during her evacuation, admitting to feeling “very angry, especially at the time, because I thought that they were going to have to amputate my hand.”
‘If I don’t make it I love you all’
William Cariker, facing the shooter at his classroom door, sent a desperate text to eight loved ones: “There’s a school shooting if I don’t make it I love you all.” The gunfire, he said, lasted mere seconds. When he called out to his friend Christian, who was closest to the door and whom he had known since kindergarten, there was no response.
Makaylah Brown, also in the same classroom, recounted shielding her friend’s eyes to spare her from seeing Christian’s body.
Aryanna Norman shared her struggles with anxiety following the shooting, requiring medication. “Even to go on a walk around my neighborhood, anxiety would fill my head, and I’d feel like somebody would drive past me and shoot me,” Norman stated in court on Monday. She frequently relives the day, often seeing “Christian laying on the floor, lifeless.”