The Grandfather of Georgia high school sho0ting suspect Colt Gray is demanding the de@th penalty for the 14-year-old's father over his role in the mass mu¥der.


Colin Gray faces four counts of manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder amid claims he gave his son the AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre at Apalachee High School on Wednesday, September 3.

Gray's ex-father-in-law said the 14-year-old was 'driven by his father to do what he did' as it emerged that Colt's grandmother visited the school outside Winder just hours before the shooting to discuss his behavior.


'Spending 11 years with that son of a b***h screaming and hollering every day, it can affect anybody,' Charles Polhamus, 81, told the NY Post.


'He needs the death penalty.'


Gray, 54, appeared in court last Friday after he was arrested over his role in the shooting that killed two students and two teachers, and left nine injured.


The alleged gunman's parents split in 2022 after they were evicted from their home and Colt was living with Gray when the shooting took place.



'Colt has to pay for what he did, but I'm telling you, he was driven, no question in my mind,' Polhamus said from his home in Fitzgerald.



'Colt is like a lot of young kids these days with the tablets and some of the garbage they pull up, the blood, and all the fighting.



'If you don't think that has an impact on young kids, you're missing the boat, and that was also part of Colt's problem.



'It's part of it and living with a dysfunctional dad who was a screamer and a hollerer.



'No question about it. Before going through this, he was a good kid. I will preach that forever.'



Polhamus said his wife Deborah had gone to the school a day before the shooting as family concern about Colt mounted.

 


'They were having some problems with him not going to school, and this kind of thing,' he told CBS.

 


'My wife had gone up there the day before and met with the teachers to get him some.'



Polhamus spoke out after it was claimed that his daughter, Marcee Gray, called her son's school to warn them of an 'extreme emergency' minutes before the shooting started.


 

'I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go immediately and find [my son] to check on him,' the mother told her sister in text messages seen by the Washington Post.




The outlet reported that a call log from the family's shared phone plan shows Gray made a 10-minute call to the school at 9.50am on Wednesday, about half an hour before Colt allegedly opened fire.


 

She then got in her car and started driving toward the school, more than three hours away.



But about half-way there she learned that the tragedy she was racing to prevent had already taken place.



'I was the one that notified the school counselor at the high school,' he told her sister.



Further text exchanges reported by Marcee's sister showed that Colt's school and family were also in contact regarding his deteriorating mental health at least a week before the shooting.



In one text, Brown reportedly told a relative that Colt was having 'homicidal and suicidal thoughts.'



'He shouldn't have a gun, and he should've been in THERAPY months ago,' she added in the text.


 

Brown said that her nephew had spent months 'begging' for mental health help, but the 'adults around him failed him.'



Marcee was previously ordered by a court to have only limited contact with Colt's father after she pleaded guilty in December to a charge of family violence.


Months earlier in May 2023, the family had been visited by local law enforcement after receiving an FBI tip about threats to carry out a school shooting.


Colt denied making the threats, and Gray told cops that although he kept hunting rifles in the home his son was not allowed to use them unsupervised.


 

But the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the boy's father allowed him access to the AR-style rifle used in the shooting, as investigators probe claims it was gifted him as a Christmas present in December last year.


 

Polhamus said his former son-in-law cost the family their 'half-million-dollar farm' after spiraling into drug addiction following a back injury.

 

And he said his daughter was dragged into her then husband's addiction but had always remained committed to their three children.


'She is a good person and a mom,' he insisted. 'But I'm back to what I said about narcissists: They can change anybody.


'Marcee never did anything to Colt. All she did is help him out.'


He also said his grandson sent her a message on the morning of the shooting, telling her 'I'm sorry Mom'.


'Colt didn't cause that to happen. He did it,' Polhamus said.


'He didn't wake up one day and decide I'm going to kill people. No, he didn't do that. He came out of an environment.


'If you step in a wad of s***, what happens to your foot? You step in a wad of s***.


'This is no different. To live in that for 11 years, my daughter and her children.


'If you live in that kind of relationship for 11 years you're not going to stay stable.'