Colin Gray, 54, the father of Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, 14, enters the Barrow County courthouse for his first appearance, on Friday in Winder, Ga. Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

WINDER, Ga. — The 14-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting four people and wounding nine others at his Georgia high school made his first court appearance Friday morning – minutes before his father sat before the same judge after being arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the attack.

The suspected shooter, Colt Gray, faces four counts of felony murder in connection with Wednesday’s attack at Apalachee High School, which left two fellow students and two teachers dead. Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith, whose office is prosecuting the case, said Friday that additional charges are forthcoming against Gray but may not be filed until the investigation is complete, which could take several more weeks.

Gray was brought into Barrow County Superior Court shortly after 8:30 a.m. through a side door, dressed in a green shirt and khaki pants, his long, bleached blond hair shaggy, and shackled at his wrists and feet. He did not look around the courtroom but quickly took a seat and identified himself for Piedmont Judicial Circuit Judge Currie M. Mingledorff II.

Mingledorff initially told Gray that the potential penalties included capital punishment. He later brought Gray back into court to amend that and told Gray that the penalties would not include death because he is under age 18. A preliminary hearing was set for Dec. 4.

Gray’s attorney, public defender Zane Harmon, said he was not requesting bond at this time.

Gray’s father, Colin Gray, appeared a short time later, dressed in striped gray jail attire and handcuffed and shackled as well. Asked to state his name, Colin Gray replied in a hoarse voice, so quietly that the judge ordered him to speak more loudly into a microphone.

The judge read through Colin Gray’s charges and informed him that he faced a maximum of 180 years in prison if convicted – including a 30-year maximum sentence on each of the second-degree murder charges. As the judge read through the charges, Colin Gray rocked back and forth in his chair.

The elder Gray’s attorney, public defender Donna Seagraves, told the judge she was not seeking bond at this time. She said she was representing Colin Gray temporarily and that, like his son, he planned to obtain “alternate” counsel later Friday. His preliminary hearing was also set for Dec. 4.

Colt Gray leaves the Barrow County courthouse after his first appearance for the Wednesday shooting at Apalachee High School on Friday, in Winder, Ga. Brynn Anderson/Pool/AP

Several dozen friends and family members of the victims were seated in the first two rows of the third-floor courtroom. Court staff distributed boxes of tissues along the rows ahead of the hearing. Many sat quietly, staring at a rear entry door to the courtroom, as they awaited the suspect’s arrival.

Some family members wore sunglasses and wiped at tears, as victim-support staffers with the district attorney’s office consoled them. Others sat with their arms crossed, showing little emotion, as they silently stared at Colt Gray and his father as they were shuffled in and out of court.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith and more than a dozen armed deputies lined the walls of the third-floor courtroom at the Barrow County Courthouse, which was under heavy security Friday.

The younger Gray, a high school freshman, was arrested Wednesday after a brief confrontation at the school and is being held at a juvenile detention center in nearby Gainesville, Ga. State officials have said they plan to try the teen as an adult. Arrest warrants filed Thursday in the case accused Gray of using a “black, semiautomatic AR-15 style rifle” in the fatal attack.

Colin Gray, 54, was taken into custody Thursday on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children in connection with the deadly shooting.

Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said at a Thursday evening news conference that the elder Gray’s arrest was “directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon.”

Arrest warrants filed against Colin Gray and obtained by The Washington Post accused him of “providing a firearm to Colt Gray with knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others.” The warrants, filed for each of the charges, outlined the alleged acts the elder Gray committed – including the counts of cruelty against children, which involve eight students injured in the attack. The warrants, which redact the names of the injured, alleged that Colin Gray was criminally negligent and caused “cruel and excessive physical pain by providing a firearm” to his son who was a threat.

The second-degree murder charges apply only to the two children killed in the attack – a decision that prosecutor Smith tied to Georgia law.

“Second-degree murder is different in Georgia than in other states. It’s a rather new charge, and it is specifically geared towards cruelty to children in the second degree,” Smith said after the hearing. “If you commit cruelty to children in the second degree that causes death, that is second-degree murder.”

The charges against Colin Gray came a day after the FBI’s Atlanta office and the sheriff’s office in Jackson County, Ga., a neighboring county to Barrow, revealed that they had investigated Colt Gray and questioned him and his father in May 2023 after being tipped off about menacing, anonymous social media posts threatening a school shooting.

Colt Gray denied writing the posts and told officers he was concerned that anyone would suggest he would threaten to “shoot up a school, stating that he would never say such a thing, even in a joking manner,” according to records of the investigation obtained by The Post.

According to the records, Colin Gray acknowledged having rifles and other guns in the home, but he told officers that his son was not allowed to use guns without supervision and that the boy did not have “unfettered access” to them.

Both father and son have been charged in the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. The nine others injured in the attack are recovering, local officials have said.

Prosecutor Smith said the additional charges looming against Colt Gray involve those injured in the attack – noting they weren’t originally filed because prosecutors were not yet aware of the identities of the victims or the extent of their injuries when Gray was arrested Wednesday.

Smith said those additional charges would be filed either at the completion of the investigation or when a grand jury hears the case. That panel’s next scheduled meeting is Oct. 17 and would be followed by a formal arraignment hearing, where Gray would be asked to enter a plea.

Smith said he was unsure if Colin Gray would face additional charges in the case and said it would depend on the outcome of the investigation.

Pressed on why he charged Gray’s father, Smith acknowledged it was a rare decision. He said he was not influenced by the prosecution of Jennifer and James Crumbley, who were convicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter after their son, using a gun they purchased for him, shot and killed four students at his Oxford, Mich., high school in 2021. And he also said he was not trying to send a larger message with the case.

“This is an attack on an entire community,” Smith said. “My job is to prosecute people without favor, fear or affection, and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not trying to send a message. I’m just trying to use the tools in my arsenal to prosecute people for the crimes they commit.”

Sarah Blaskey in Washington contributed to this report.