Georgia high school shooting suspect makes first court appearance
(WINDER, Ga.) — Colt Gray, the 14-year-old accused of opening fire at his Georgia high school, made his first court appearance on Friday, where the judge informed him of the charges against him and ordered him held without bond.
Gray is charged with four counts of felony murder for allegedly shooting and killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School on Wednesday.
Another seven students and two teachers were injured. All of the injured victims are expected to make full recoveries, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.
More charges against Gray are expected, the GBI said.
The 14-year-old will be tried as an adult, authorities said.
A motive has not yet been determined and it is unknown if the victims were targeted, investigators said.
Gray’s aunt, Annie Brown, said her nephew was “begging for help from everybody around him.”
Investigators believe that Gray received the AR-style gun used in the shooting as a Christmas present from his father, according to sources.
The teen’s father, Colin Gray, 54, was arrested Thursday and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said.
Colin Gray is accused of “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said Thursday.
Colin Gray is also expected to appear in court on Friday.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department unsealed charges Tuesday targeting multiple senior members of Hamas’ leadership for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murdering of Americans during the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The criminal complaint, unsealed in the Southern District of New York, names six members of Hamas’ leadership structure and details extensively their alleged terrorist activities on behalf of the group.
The complaint details seven criminal charges against the Hamas leaders including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group resulting in death, conspiracy to provide material support for acts of terrorism resulting in death, conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, conspiracy to bomb a place of public use resulting in death, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction resulting in death and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Among those named in the criminal complaint are Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader assassinated in Iran in July, and Yahya Sinwar, who has been described by Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the “primary decider” in cease-fire negotiations.
The other defendants listed are Mohammad Al-Masri, Marwan Issa, Khaled Meshaal and Ali Baraka.
The charges were filed in February and kept under seal because the DOJ was hoping to be able to take Haniyeh and other members of the alleged conspiracy into U.S. custody, a DOJ official told ABC News, who added that it was no longer necessary to do so since three of the six charged are now deceased and given the recent developments in the region.
The charges accuse the group of financing and directing a “decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the complaint’s unsealing.
“As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hizballah [Hezbollah] — have led Hamas’ efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” Garland said. “In its attacks over the past three decades, Hamas has murdered or injured thousands of civilians, including dozens of American citizens.”
Garland further confirmed in a statement Tuesday that the Justice Department is actively investigating Hamas’ murder of six hostages over the weekend, including dual American Israeli citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
“The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations. These actions will not be our last,” Garland said. “The Justice Department has a long memory. We will pursue the terrorists responsible for murdering Americans — and those who illegally provide them with material support — for the rest of their lives.”
Hamas carried out an unprecedented incursion from Gaza into southern Israel by air, land and sea on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 253 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Officials say there are now 97 hostages remaining in Gaza. Before the killing of the six hostages over the weekend, U.S. and Israeli officials had assessed that fewer than 50 were still living.
Twelve American citizens were taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Two were released in late October, and two more were freed in November as part of a cease-fire deal. Of the eight Americans who remain detained in Gaza, four have been declared dead. U.S. and Israeli officials believe that four others could be alive.
More than 40,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 94,200 others have been injured in Gaza since Oct. 7, amid Israel’s ongoing ground operations and aerial bombardment of the strip, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — The sheriff for Illinois’ Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, which employed the former deputy who shot and killed Sonya Massey in her home earlier this month after she called 911 to report a possible intruder, said during public comments Monday night that they had “failed” her.
“Sonya Massey – I speak her name and I’ll never forget it,” Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said during a “Community Healing & Listening Session” Monday night at Union Baptist Church in Springfield. “She called for help and we failed. That’s all she did: call for help.”
“I’m going to say something right now I’ve never said in my career before: we failed,” Campbell continued. “We did not do our jobs. We failed Sonya. We failed Sonya’s family and friends. We failed the community. I stand here today before you with arms wide open to ask for forgiveness.”
Sean Grayson, the now-former deputy who fatally shot Sonya Massey in her Illinois home July 6 while responding to her 911 call, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and official misconduct in Massey’s death, and remains in custody.
Many attending Monday’s gathering applauded Campbell’s comments, but some expressed fear and outrage concerning law enforcement and community relations in the area.
“I live alone, and even though I already preferred not to call the police, I’m definitely not calling the police now,” Sierra Helmer, a Springfield resident, said Monday. “If I do need help, I should be able to call the police. Police officers are meant to protect and serve, but here in Springfield, apparently, and shown on camera, they harassed and unfortunately kill. Sonya’s tragic death has sparked an outrage in me as a single Black woman who was raised by a Black woman and having many other Black women raise me.”
Helmer’s comments also were met with applause and some cheers from community members.
“I asked Ms. Massey and her family for forgiveness,” Campbell said. “I offer up no excuses. What I do is offer our attempt to do better, to be better.”
“We will probably never know why he did what he did,” Campbell continued, referring to Grayson, “but I’m committed to providing the best service we can to all of you.”
Campbell also said Monday night that he will not resign his position.
“I cannot step down,” he said. “I will not abandon the sheriff’s office at its most critical moment. That will solve nothing. The incident will remain.”
Grayson, 30, and a second, unnamed deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call on July 6 reporting a possible intruder at her Springfield home.
Body camera footage released last week and reviewed by ABC News shows Massey, who was unarmed, telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me” once she answered their knocks on her door.
Grayson responded, “I don’t want to hurt you, you called us.”
Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points to a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”
Massey then pours the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
Grayson then shouts at Massey and threatens to shoot her, the video shows, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, at which time Grayson shoots her three times in the face, the footage shows.
The footage is from the point of view of Grayson’s partner, because Grayson did not turn on his own body camera until after the shooting, according to court documents.
A review by Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force. He was fired from his position with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office on July 17, the same day the charges were filed against him.
Massey family attorney Ben Crump has said the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the shooting. However, Chicago ABC station WLS reported last week that the Justice Department told them in a statement that it “is aware of and assessing the circumstances surrounding the tragic officer-involved death of Ms. Sonya Massey and extends condolences to her family and loved ones.”
Grayson himself has a history of problematic behavior. Prior to his time in public law enforcement, he was discharged from the U.S. Army for unspecified “misconduct (serious offense),” according to documents obtained by ABC News.
ABC News also learned that Grayson was charged with two DUI offenses in Macoupin County, Illinois, in August 2015 and July 2016, according to court documents.
James Wilburn, Massey’s father, criticized Sheriff Campbell for his role in Grayson’s employment and called for Campbell to resign at a press conference last week.
“The sheriff here is an embarrassment,” Wilburn said. “[Grayson] should have never had a badge. And he should have never had a gun. He should have never been given the opportunity to kill my child.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin and Dhanika Pineda contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The two astronauts who went up to the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing’s Starliner may have to come home on a different spacecraft, NASA officials said during a press conference Wednesday.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who performed the first crewed test flight of Starliner, have been in space for more than 60 days. When they launched on June 5, they were only supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.
Boeing and NASA officials have been resistant to exploring the option to bringing the crew home on another method but Kenneth Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said the team is considering it.
“We don’t just have to bring a crew back on Starliner for example. We can bring them back on another vehicle,” he said. “In the case that we have with the Starliner crew flight test, the option to either bring the crew home on Starliner or to bring the crew home on another vehicle, we could take either path.”
Bowersox said there is currently more “consensus” needed among the team, but they are also getting “more serious about evaluating our other options.”
Wilmore and Williams are “integrated” with the Expedition 71 crew aboard the ISS and Bowersox said that, although it’s helpful to have extra hands onboard the station, they are using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.
Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said NASA is considering sending SpaceX’s Dragon Crew-9, set to launch to the ISS in September, with only two of the four astronauts assigned to it.
The spacecraft would carry extra spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams. However, the two would remain on the ISS until February 2025, when Crew-9 is set to return to Earth. Stich said the proposed plan has not formally been approved yet.
“Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open,” Stich said.
Stich added that Starliner does not currently have the ability to autonomously undock from the ISS. To do that, the Starliner software would need to be updated and the Boeing flight control team would need to undergo additional training.
In a statement to ABC News, Boeing said it was confident in Starliner’s ability to bring the astronauts home.
“[Crew Flight Test] is currently a crewed mission, and we still believe in Starliner’s capability and its flight rationale,” the statement read. “If NASA decides to change the mission, we will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return.”
Starliner is part of the largerCommercial Crew Programat NASA, which was testing if Boeing’s spacecrafts could be certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.
Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled to return on June 14 but have since had their return delayed multiple times.
Starliner has been plagued by issues even before launch. The flight test was originallytentatively scheduled for May 6, but was scrubbed after a problem with an oxygen valve on a rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), which manufactures and operates the rockets that launch spacecraft into orbit.
A new launch date had been set for May 25, but asmall helium leak was discovered in the service module, which contains support systems and instruments for operating a spacecraft.
Helium leaks and a thruster issue then threatened to delay Starliner’s docking. Five days after docking at the ISS, NASA and Boeing said the spacecraft was experiencingfive “small” helium leaksand, at the time, said enough helium was available for the return mission.
Last month, teams at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico performed ground tests of Starliner’s thruster, putting it through similar conditions the spacecraft experienced on its way to the ISS, to see how it would react upon undocking.