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(WINDER, Ga.) — State investigators are revealing new details surrounding the gun a 14-year-old boy allegedly used to kill two teachers and two students at his Georgia high school.

Colt Gray allegedly brought the AR-15-style rifle used in last week’s shooting — a Christmas present from his dad, according to sources — to school on his own, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday. The long gun “could not be broken down,” so the teen hid it in his backpack, the GBI said.

The morning of the shooting, Gray asked his teacher for permission to go to the front office and speak with an unidentified person, the GBI said. The teacher allowed him to leave and take his belongings with him, the GBI said.

The 14-year-old then went to the bathroom and hid from teachers, and later allegedly took out the rifle and started shooting, according to the GBI.

Colt Gray is accused of killing four people and injuring nine others at Apalachee High School on Sept. 4.

Seven of the nine people who were wounded suffered gunshot wounds, the GBI clarified on Thursday.

Colt Gray is charged with four counts of felony murder. More charges will be filed, prosecutors said.

The teen’s father, Colin Gray, is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said. He is accused of knowingly allowing his son to possess the weapon used in the shooting, according to the GBI.

Investigators believe Colt Gray received the AR-style gun used in the shooting as a Christmas present from his father, according to sources.

Colt Gray and Colin Gray both made their first court appearances on Friday. Neither has entered a plea and both are set to return to court on Dec. 4.

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(NEW YORK) — Schools in a Kentucky country reopened Tuesday under heavy police guard for the first time since a massive search was launched for a suspect in an interstate shooting that injured five people 11 days ago.

As the suspect, 32-year-old Joseph Couch, remained on the loose Tuesday, the Laurel County Public Schools reopened campuses to its nearly 9,000 students.

“We will not live our lives in fear,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a news conference Tuesday.

The school district said in a statement that the reopening plan “prioritizes the safety of our students and staff.”

“The reopening plan provides enhanced security measures for bus transportation services, school campuses and extra-curricular activities,” the school district said.

Tuesday’s search for Couch continued to focus in the thick woods of the Daniel Boone National Forest, according to the Kentucky State Police.

Both state and federal teams have combed through at least 28,000 acres of the more than 700,000-acre national forest, but have yet to find any sign of Couch, officials said.

As the search continues in the national forest, officials said they are expanding the hunt for Couch to the communities surrounding the forest.

Beshear said additional state resources are being made available to help with the ongoing search efforts.

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service are assisting in the search.

The search for the gunman began on Sept. 7, after police responded to reports that a dozen vehicles traveling on Interstate 75 near London, Kentucky, had been struck by gunfire, officials said.

The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said 20 to 30 shots were fired from a hillside near I-75’s exit 49.

Couch was initially named as a person of interest after deputies found his SUV abandoned on a forest road near exit 49, officials said. An AR-15 rifle Couch purchased in the hours before the shooting and investigators believe was used in the incident was also found in the woods near Couch’s vehicle along with a bag with Couch’s name written on it, officials said.

A day after the shooting, Couch was upgraded to the primary suspect. Investigators warned that Couch should be considered armed and dangerous.

In addition to searching the national forest, a tip prompted investigators this week to search a home in Laurel County, but found no evidence of Couch having been there, officials said.

Before the interstate shooting, according to the arrest warrant, a Laurel County 911 dispatcher received a call from a woman who alleged Couch texted her before the interstate shooting and “advised he was going to kill a lot of people. Well, try at least.” The text message was sent to the woman at 5:03 p.m. on Sept. 7, about a half-hour before the interstate shooting started, according to the arrest warrant.

“Couch sent another message to [the woman] that read, in part, ‘I’ll kill myself afterwards,'” according to the arrest warrant.

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(ST. LOUIS) — A county prosecutor in St. Louis, Missouri, presented DNA evidence Wednesday alleging that a death row inmate convicted of first-degree murder is innocent in a case that has drawn opposition from the state attorney general.

Marcellus Williams, 55, who has maintained his innocence, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, according to court documents. He was charged in 1999 and found guilty in 2001.

The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, headed by Wesley Bell, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday that the lead prosecutor and investigator who initially tried the case two decades ago handled the knife used to kill Gayle without gloves and their DNA was found on the evidence.

“DNA from two members of the trial team were found on the murder weapon in testing we did for this hearing,” Bell’s office told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. “In open court today, a DNA expert testified that their improper handling of the weapon could have eliminated other DNA evidence. Williams’ DNA was never recovered from the knife.”

Bell’s office did not address whether they are asking the judge to invalidate the knife as evidence because of improper handling.

Williams was set to enter an Alford plea after a circuit court judge, and Bell agreed to it last week. An Alford plea would allow him to accept the consequences of a guilty plea but would not require him to admit specific wrongdoing to get his sentence reduced to life in prison without parole, according to the county prosecutor’s office.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued that the move to vacate Williams’ death sentence should not have been allowed, saying in a statement that the “defense created a false narrative of innocence in order to get a convicted murderer off of death row and fulfill their political ends.”

Wednesday’s hearing came after the Missouri State Supreme Court ruled last Thursday in favor of a request from Bailey for the circuit court to first hold an evidentiary proceeding before considering vacating the death sentence.

“It is in the interest of every Missourian that the rule of law is fought for and upheld – every time, without fail,” according to a statement from Bailey last Thursday. “I am glad the Missouri Supreme Court recognized that. We look forward to putting on evidence in a hearing like we were prepared to do yesterday [when the circuit judge agreed to vacate Williams’ death sentence].”

The State Attorney General’s Office did not respond to ABC News’ request for further comments after the evidentiary hearing.

The county prosecutor’s office submitted the 63-page motion on Jan. 26 to vacate Williams’ conviction.

“Despite the fact that no reliable evidence has ever connected Mr. Williams to the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle,” The Innocence Project, who is representing Williams, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. “Attorney General Andrew Bailey has vigorously fought to prevent the court from vacating Mr. Williams’ conviction and to execute him on September 24.”

In the summer of 2024, Bailey has litigated against three wrongful-conviction claims opposing local prosecutors and judges, according to The New York Times, including the Christopher Dunn case, in which the state attorney general did not accept the recanting of testimonies of two witnesses who previously tied Dunn to the murder of a teenager in 1990. Dunn was released from prison after Bailey appealed the ruling of a circuit court judge who vacated Dunn’s conviction.

Williams was convicted on June 15, 2001, of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, armed criminal action and robbery connected to events at Gayle’s home in suburban St. Louis, according to court documents.

Gayle was found murdered with more than 43 stab wounds in her home on Aug. 11, 1998, according to the county prosecutor’s motion. The kitchen knife used in the killing was left lodged in Gayle’s body, according to court documents. Blood, hair, fingerprints and shoe prints believed to belong to the perpetrator were found around the home. Gayle’s purse and her husband’s laptop were declared missing after the attack, according to county prosecutor’s motion.

“None of this physical evidence tied Mr. Williams to Ms. Gayle’s murder,” according to the motion filed by Bell’s office. “Mr. Williams was excluded as the source of the footprints, Mr. Williams was excluded by microscopy as the source of the hairs found near Ms. Gayle’s body … and Mr. Williams was not found to be the source of the fingerprints.”

About a year after Gayle’s death, Henry Cole, a man who had been recently released from jail, told authorities that he had been Williams’ cellmate and heard him admit to the murder, according to court documents.

In November 1999, Laura Asaro, Williams’ girlfriend at the time, told police that Williams confessed to her that he killed Gayle, according to Bell’s motion. The prosecution’s case was largely dependent on these two witness accounts, the motion said.

In court documents, Bell’s office claimed there were significant issues with the credibility of Cole and Asaro’s accounts, which they said were inconsistent over time and contained testimony that didn’t line up with physical evidence. Bell’s office also alleged that both witnesses had incentives to testify, including a possible cash reward to find Gayle’s killer and, in Asaro’s case, an offer of help from police with her outstanding warrants.

Williams pawned the laptop stolen from Gayle’s home, but the motion alleges the buyer of the computer told investigators that Williams explained to him that Asaro had given him the laptop to sell for her. The jury who convicted Williams was not allowed to hear testimony that Williams said he received the laptop from Asaro because the testimony would have been hearsay. Williams was convicted in June 2001 and sentenced to death.

In 2017, when Williams was hours away from execution, then-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens granted him a reprieve so a panel could evaluate his conviction.

Last year, Gov. Mike Parson disbanded the panel, according to court documents. A day after the governor dissolved the panel, Bailey asked the State Supreme Court to schedule an execution date. Parson said that he is open to discussing clemency for Williams, according to a statement on Monday obtained by ABC News.

“One of the defense’s own experts previously testified he could not rule out the possibility that Williams’ DNA was also on the knife. He could only testify to the fact that enough actors had handled the knife throughout the legal process that others’ DNA was present,” read a statement from Bailey last week.

The county prosecuting attorney’s office said the state’s claim that one of their expert witnesses could not rule out Williams’s DNA on the weapon was insignificant.

“The AG (attorney general) is arguing about a motion that was not taken up by the court today and has no bearing on the matter,” read the statement from Bell’s office.

The circuit court has until Sept. 13 to make a ruling on Williams’ case after the evidentiary hearing, according to court documents.

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