WINDER, Ga. (AP) — The 14-year-old suspect in a Shooting in which four people were killed at a high school in the US state of Georgia, and his father, who was arrested for allowing his son to possess a gun, remain in custody after their lawyers decided on Friday not to seek bail.

Colt Gray, who is charged with four counts of murder, is accused of killing two classmates and two teachers with a semi-automatic assault rifle at Apalachee High School in Winder, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday. His father, Colin Gray, is confronted with corresponding allegations This is the latest attempt by prosecutors to hold parents responsible for their children’s actions in school shootings.

“You don’t have to be physically injured to be a victim,” District Attorney Brad Smith said outside the Barrow County Courthouse. “Everyone in this community is a victim. Every child in this school was a victim.”

Father and son appeared for back-to-back hearings Friday morning with about 50 spectators in the courtroom, where staff had placed tissue boxes along the benches alongside media and sheriff’s deputies. Some of the victims’ family members in the front row hugged each other and one woman held a stuffed animal.

During his hearing, Colt Gray, wearing khaki pants and a green shirt, was informed of his rights and the charges and punishments he faced for the shooting at the school where he was a student. He was led out in handcuffs and leg shackles.

The judge then called the teenager back into the courtroom to correct an earlier false statement that his crimes could be punishable by death. Because he is a minor, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.

Shortly afterwards, Colin Gray was brought into court in a grey striped prison uniform. Colin Gray, 54, was charged on Thursday in connection with the shooting and answered questions in a barely audible croak, stating his age and saying that he had completed 11th grade and thus earned a high school diploma.

Colin Gray was charged for manslaughter and premeditated murder in connection with the shooting. Arrest warrants state that he caused the deaths of others “by giving a firearm to Colt Gray, knowing that he posed a danger to himself and others.”

The charges come five months after parents Jennifer and James Crumbley of Michigan filed the first convicted of shooting at a US schoolThey were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to secure a firearm at home and reacting indifferently to signs of deteriorating mental health of their son before he killed four students in 2021The shootings in Georgia have also renewed debate on laws for the safe storage of weapons and the parents wonder how to talk to your children about school shootings and trauma.

The father and son hearings came as police in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody said there have been threats of violence at schools there and across the country since the Apalachee High School shooting, police said in a statement. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation also noted that there have been numerous threats against schools across the state this week.

According to arrest warrants obtained by The Associated Press, Colt Gray is accused of using a “black AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.” in amok spreeAuthorities did not give a motive or explain how he got the gun or brought it to the school.

He was charged as an adult in the deaths by Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. A neighbor remembered Schermerhorn as a young boy who was very curious. Aspinwall and Irimie were both math teachers, and Aspinwall also helped coach the school’s football team. Irimie, who immigrated from Romania, volunteered at a local church where she taught dance classes.

Additional charges will be filed against Colt Gray, Smith said. When the teenager was taken into custody Wednesday, authorities did not know the identities or conditions of the nine people injured in the attack, so they could not initially file charges against them, he said.

Colt Gray denied threatening a school shooting when authorities questioned him about a threatening social media post last year, according to a sheriff’s report obtained Thursday. Conflicting evidence about the post’s origins led investigators to be unable to arrest anyone, the report said. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said she reviewed the May 2023 report and found nothing that would have warranted charges at the time.

The attack was the latest of dozens of school shootings in the United States in recent years, including particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; And Uvalde, TexasThe classroom killings have sparked heated debates about gun control, but little has changed in national gun laws.

It was the 30th. Mass killing in the US so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in cooperation with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in these killings, which are defined as events in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer – the same definition used by the FBI.

The cases will be presented to a grand jury, which is next scheduled to meet on Oct. 17, Smith said. Grand jury proceedings are not open to the public or media. If the grand jury indicts Colt and Colin Gray, their arraignment will be scheduled. Colin Gray faces another hearing on Dec. 4.

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Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press journalists Charlotte Kramon, Sharon Johnson, Mike Stewart and Erik Verduzco in Winder; Trenton Daniel and Beatrice Dupuy in New York; Eric Tucker in Washington; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.