Struggle to hold the eastern line nick paton walsh, was horrific to watch. Well, thank you for joining us. Ac360 starts now good evening we start with breaking news, dramatic development in yesterday's mass shooting at appalachia high school in georgia. We are waiting a news conference by authorities that is to take place any minute. We have just learned the father of the 40yearold suspect in that shooting has now been arrested in connection with the shooting. You can see authorities are gathering. We'll bring you that press conference has begins let's listen in. We wanted to come back and update you on the progress of the case this evening appreciate you being here in coordination with the district attorney with district attorney brad smith the gbi has arrested collin gray age 54, in connection to the shooting here at apalachee high school carlin is coat grazed. Father that was arrested yesterday he is charged with the following four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of seconddegree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children mr. Gray, these charges stem from mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, colt to possess a weapon this is a very difficult time, as we know for students and parents and so many i know of students and parents here in this county and around this state are afraid you all have likely seen reports of incidents of other students making threats today. At various schools around our stake. In each of these incidents police law enforcement took charges. They made arrests acted very swiftly. As we take incidents like this very seriously across this state. This is a time for all of us as a community and a state to come together and remain vigilant students must be supported, inc. An encouraged. Here in this community across the state to contact a member of the school's faculty with any and all concerns of suspicious activity that they may seem local state and federal law enforcement will continue to work together around the clock in relation to this incident here. In any other incidents that come up around this state that raised concern to the safety of our students faculty and citizens here in the state of georgia additionally, cope gray that was arrested yesterday for this incident has now been charged with four counts of felony murder and again, we will continue to work tirelessly to finish complete this investigation as we move forward, i will go ahead and mention to you, and as i say, sometimes i'm go ahead and apologize to you. As you all know that this is a murder investigation. It is a very serious investigation, one that we take serious one that we will continue to diligently work on. It'd be very thorough with it with a deal we are in our local partners here. So you'll have to forgive us if we don't add a lot of the questions that you asked, i know you had many and we wish we could ask for many of them for you, but we still obviously want to maintain the integrity of this investigation because it has a long way to go for it to be finished. Again, i also want to remind everyone that we need to continue to pray and support the victims that were involved here. The school teachers, the faculty, the students, obviously those that lost their lives, their families and those that were injured. So i like to call them the sheriff to come and give you a brief update on the status of those that were injured from yesterday's event. Thank you. Thank you director house. As rector house, he said i'd like to decide that obviously we lifting up those families, are hearts are hurting for them. Our kids our students, our teachers but the nine injured i am very happy to say we'll make a full recovery and that's a testament to the response that we had in my opinion the response to medical staff happened, that responded with in my opinion and we're very happy to say that they will make a full recovery after that that response again, please lift up our community please keep these children, these teachers we call them teachers, but i called them heroes we met with him the day emotions are very high, obviously but we told them that we love them, we love our teachers and what they do and we're very happy at the fact that they stood in the gap between evil to protect their children. And we want to include them in the save the lives that were saved as well yesterday but i wanted to report to you that all nine people that are injured will expect to make a full recovery thank you. Several of them are still in the hospital, some have been released well, i'm i'm all leave it at you all mentioned it in the release that he knowingly allowed him to possess the weapons. Director details about how the arrest happened today. Did you turn himself when did you guys make contact with them? how did that go with investigators is afternoon i'm, honestly not familiar with the details i'll i can tell you is that he is in custody at this time it's difficult to say at this point in time we're obviously still investigating is following all leads, all evidence and we'll see where it takes us as we progress forward. Russian has been made sooner the arrest was made when we had the probable cause to make the arrest i'm not sure. No, no? i'm not sure about that either. I'm sorry. Are you anybody explained the charges he has more charges not in great detail. The biggest thing is i mentioned earlier is that he is in custody at this point in time. His charges or directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon. Should we be housing your facility? that where he will be told? how does that mean for he'll be held in the bear county detention center? his mug shot be available tonight or will take some time for that. Depends on how long it takes us to book him. But if that if it's available, we can get that to you all tonight. If not tomorrow. That's some good news. Some have been released, you know, the numbers of patients release victims i don't want to speak to that because i don't know the exact number, but i know that i want to just report that all now would make a full recovery and be able to leave the hospital nine people that were injured. Do we know if they are a mix of students and teachers or staff or are they just humans i believe i believe what to were adult teachers and the rest, which would be seven, would be students. I do i plead when there is precedent for charges like this i'm sorry. Can you explain whether there is precedent in the state of georgia as far as the gbi is concerned for the father or parents to be charged for the crime. I don't have any details on any history of it, but i would venture to say it's not something nice. Can you tell us about the evidence that led to these charges? know my that's part of the ongoing investigation. I apologize to all this time with him being able to talk with investigators were pretty strong yesterday were saying this was an evil act it's very sad honestly but looking back at lead to the 14 yearold's been able to say to investigators over the last 24 hours, can you reflect on just what this community space in africa? what he allegedly did at the school while we're what we're facing heartbreak we're heartbroken a young person brought a gun into a school committed an evil act and he took lives and the injured many other people, not only physically but mentally but i'm proud of bear county i'm proud of our superintendent. I'm proud of these teachers. I'm proud of these schools. And i'm proud of where i live and we'll get past this you see behind me appear on the hill we've got a vigil going on at our flagpole i welcome you to go see those kids and those young people that are hurting can you please explain whether we're still expecting more charges? i think i answered that earlier. Our investigation is still ongoing so we'll see where things go without investigation. And i'll leave it there. Thank you. He's so much this all we have for tonight. Continue to follow the gbi on x. Please monitor our website. We did not anticipate another update, but as you can see, it's fluid. Things are developing. Again, we appreciate your patience and your support and your continued prayers for the victims. Thank you. So you were hearing from authorities there limited in what they will say, but that the father of the shooting suspect has like his son now today, been charged four counts involuntary manslaughter for a second degree murder, as well as a charges related to cruelty to children. I'm joined by isabel rosales. There's been covering the story in georgia, former federal prosecutor jeffrey toobin is with us and john miller, our chief law enforcement intelligence analysts, also, dave collin, who authored a definitive book. I one of the most infamous mass school shootings in u. S. History, columbine john first of all, what do you what are you learning? well, we began to learn and this is based on reporting by ryan young down at the scene and mark morales here in new york, that this gun, an ar15 platform, was something that the father, who was just charged, colin gave to his son as a christmas gift in december of 2023. Now that has extraordinary significance on a number of levels. Number one, it is just several months after we learned that the jackson county sheriff went to the house interviewed the father and the son about the fbi reports that he had made an online threat on a discord, read his son allegedly had a discord account in which he made online threats through a school shooting. The local authorities contacted by the fbi i interviewed both the son and the father. Who denied any any such threats, right. Column said that wasn't me on the computer the sunset, i would have never done that. But it did come from an account that the provider said belonged at that location and to those people discord, by the way, he said they removed that accounting may of 2023. Exactly. But that posting showed rifles dan talked about shooting up the school the following and pictures. So you really have to kind of when you look at a case like this, which is going to be about negligence and indifference to the probability of what could happen. Factor that in that occurred before he gave them this gun as a gift. The other thing we can say in context is at the time he gave it to him, they were collin and his wife were in the middle of a very contentious divorce and child custody case with allegations and counter allegations and arrests and the wife had accused alleged shooter's mother had accused the alleged shooter's father, her husband, of abuse verbal a hostile environment then in the course of that, she was also arrested in a car where she was charged with possession of methamphetamine and other drugs. So what you're seeing is an environment that might not be the ideal environment for a third tenyearold or a 14yearold to possess basically an assault weapon. Another father argument was he doesn't have unfettered access to it. But if you listen closely to the interview with the sheriff at the time, jackson county, they talk about well, he has access to it, but not when it's loaded. And when we when we use it, we use it together. I just took them on his hunting in trip and so on but it it clear it clearly is a factor here that he did have access to it and ammunition because we know what allegedly happened. There were there's reporting also that as part of an eviction proceeding that had occurred, that authorities had actually remove guns from the home and then returned from the father and then emily returned them again, this interview with police took place in may. It was a now according to run young and others reporting in december around christmas, that the father after having been interviewed by police, when and got an ar 15 style weapon for his son, jeff. I mean this is rare, although not unheard of second time in american history. Apparently that a parent has been charged in connection with a mass shooting by a minor. I think people may remember in michigan, just an in april the crumbley family, it was again, a shooting where a minor shot and killed four people and in an unprecedented case at that point, the parents, jennifer and james crumbley were charged with involuntary manslaughter. The same initial counts as in this case. The facts of that case involved was there recklessness? this was their foreseeability. There was a an issue in that case of not getting mental health assistance to the boy, which the school had recommended obviously, john's talking about the evidence. We know the key issue in the case against the father here will be the recklessness of foreseeability how he handled the gun in relation to his son. What's different from the michigan case in certainly jumped out to me when i heard the charges here in georgia. Is that it's not just involuntary manslaughter, which suggests it's just recklessness. The father in this case is also charged with seconddegree murder, which suggests a much higher level of intentionality which prosecutors will have to prove. What would that imply knowledge of a possible attack. It could but even knowledge, i think it would be hard to make it rise to seconddegree murder, seconddegree murder. In almost every case that i'm aware of involves intention, knowing an intentional is intentional murder. And that obviously we're just getting the evidence in this case, but that's a much higher road, much more difficult charge to prove that involuntary manslaughter, which is really just about recklessness, carelessness which certainly based on the facts of john's are laying out that seems like a very mockable case against him. As father. But seconddegree murder, very different. Isabel. I mean, you've been reporting on this all day this news just broke just a minutes before we went on air. What are you hearing about reaction to it? what have you been hearing throughout the day? yeah. And i spoke to sheriff judd's smith earlier today and he had told me that any option was possibly on the table, including charging cold grace, father in connection to this deadly shooting, one of the big questions i had after that interview with the sheriff is just how much cold great. Is talking. The sheriff told me that he was read his miranda rights and that he just kept talking and talking, even saying i did it. The sheriff told me that cold gray did not deny carrying out that shooting. And of course, we have that stunning reporting from mark morales and ryan young that the jackson county sheriff's office spoke to the father. Cnn obtained that audio of that investigation. The father saying, no, my son did not have unsupervised unsupervised access to these guns? yes. We like to hunt the sun denied i know i would never write something like this. Not even joke about it, but then we have here around christmas time, around the holidays, 67 months later the father buying him according to our law enforcement sources, buying him the same gun that was used to carry out this heinous attack. Let me so the question becomes, sorry, let me just that that audio that you mentioned, we have that from that police interview. I just want to play that way weapon accessible to him they are having there's nothing loaded, but they are down we did we actually we do a lot of shooting. We do a lot there on he shot his first year this year so i'm pretty much in shock. Maybe well, come a little off to be even really honest with if that is what was said that it's good yeah, they'll so sorry, anderson, the question becomes, how does a 14yearold get access to these guns to carry out this