The mother of the teenager accused of killing four people during last week’s shooting at a Georgia high school has apologized to the victims’ families in an open letter while insisting her son “is not a monster.”
“To the parents and families of those affected by the tragic events at Apalachee High School, I want to say that I am so sorry from the bottom of my heart,” Marcee Gray, the mother of 14-year-old Colt Gray, wrote in the letter, which she provided first to CNN.
The letter comes one week after the shooting, as questions mount about efforts to prevent the shooting following the revelation Marcee Gray called the school prior to the attack to warn of an “extreme emergency.”
The shooting left two teachers and two students dead at the high school in Winder, Georgia. Seven others were wounded and two others suffered other injuries, authorities said.
“If I could take the place of Mason and Christian, I would without a second thought,” Marcee Gray wrote, referring to the two 14-year-olds killed in the mass shooting. “As a parent, I’ve always said that the loss of one of my children would be the only thing that I wouldn’t be able to come back from. I feel all of your pain and devastation. I grieve and cry with you.”
Gray added her “heart breaks for the 2 teachers who gave their lives while in the service of teaching and protecting our children,” acknowledging Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, who also were killed.
