Father of teen suspect arrested in rare move

ATLANTA — Georgia state officials on Thursday arrested the father of the 14-year-old suspected in a school shooting that killed four people and wounded nine others on Wednesday, saying the father knowingly allowed his son to have the murder weapon.

Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

"These charges stem from Mr Gray knowingly allowing his son Colt to possess a weapon," Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told a news conference.

Colt Gray, 14, has been charged with four counts of felony murder and would be tried as an adult, officials said. His arraignment is set for Friday morning before a Georgia Superior Court judge in Barrow County by video camera.

Georgia state and Barrow County investigators say the teenager used an "AR platform style weapon," or semi-automatic rifle, to carry out the attack in which two teachers and two 14-year-old students were killed.

It remained unclear exactly how the son came into possession of the weapon.

Investigators have yet to comment on what may have motivated the first US campus mass shooting since the start of the school year.

The shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, a city of 18,000 some 80 kilometers northeast of Atlanta, revived both the national debate about gun control and the outpouring of grief that follows in a country where such attacks occur with some regularity.

Officials identified those killed as two 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, as well as two teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39 and Christina Irimie, 53.

Two teachers and seven students were also wounded in the attack, some of whom have been discharged from the hospital, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told reporters.

"The nine injured, I am very happy to say, will make a full recovery," Smith told reporters.

Studies by the US Department of Homeland Security have shown that about 75 percent of all school shooters obtained their weapons at home.

The shooting was the first planned attack at a school this fall, said David Riedman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database. Apalachee students returned to school last month, while many other students in the United States were returning this week.

Agencies Via Xinhua