Accused school shooter Colt Gray grew up in a troubled family marred by hostility between parents, according to new reports.
“It was constant abuse,” Lauren Vickers, who lived next to Gray’s family in Jefferson, Georgia, said. “It’s very, very sad.”
She said the family arrived in her neighborhood in 2022 but there were “problems immediately.”
“There were nights where the mom would lock him and his sister out the house. And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like ‘Mom! mom! mom!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating,” she said, according to the New York Post. Vickers said Colt Gray has two siblings and that at times the youngest child would come begging for food.
“No clean clothes, I’m not exaggerating,” Vickers added.
Charles Polhamus, whose daughter, Marcee, is the accused shooter’s mother, said Colt Gray “was just a good kid, but he lived in an environment that was hostile,” according to CNN.
“His dad beat up on him, I mean, I’m not talking about physical, but screaming and hollering, and he did the same thing to my daughter,” he said.
Marcee Gray left her husband, Colin, in 2022.
“Finally separated from my abusive husband of almost 14yrs,” she wrote on social media in December 2022.
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“I packed myself and my babies up and relocated to my hometown in south GA,” she wrote in a social media post in May, according to CNN. “We are all good and my kids are thriving.”
In October 2023, Barrow County Sheriff’s deputies checked on the family after Marcee Gray reported not hearing from her husband or children for two weeks.
At that time, according to a report, Colin Gray showed deputies a state document saying “a safety plan was put in place for him to have the children with him” and that their mother “could not see them without supervision.”
A month later, Colin Gray accused his wife of keying his truck, writing “abuse” and “liar” upon it.
Later in November, Marcee Gray was arrested in Winder, Georgia, on an active warrant. At the time methamphetamine, fentanyl, pain pills, and a glass pipe were found in her car. According to a police report, she admitted keying her husband’s truck.
Marcee Gray later pleaded guilty to criminal damage to property, “criminal trespass – family violence,” and using a license plate to conceal identity. She served a month in jail and then was sentenced to five months’ probation. At that time she was banned from directly contacting her husband.
Polhamus said his daughter lost custody of her children after she failed a drug test.
A report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Marcee Gray’ criminal record goes back 17 years and includes charges of domestic violence, drug possession, property damage and traffic violations as well as civil claims for fraud.
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