In usually tearful and painful testimony, college students wounded in a 2024 mass taking pictures at a Georgia highschool took the witness stand on Tuesday within the murder trial of the alleged gunman’s father.
Because the defendant, 55-year-old Colin Grey, sat simply ft away listening, the scholars recounted the horror they endured on Sept. 4, 2024, at Apalachee Excessive College in Winder, Georgia, allegedly by the hands of Grey’s then 14-year-old son, Colt.
Decide Nicholas Primm, who’s presiding over the case, ordered the media to not present the scholars’ faces throughout the televised trial. The protection didn’t cross-examine any of the scholars who testified.
All the college students who testified Tuesday mentioned they had been in algebra instructor Cassandra Ryan’s class after they heard a loud bang outdoors their classroom door.
Colin Grey, the daddy of Apalachee Excessive College taking pictures suspect Colt Grey, appears to be like down as his lawyer provides his opening assertion on the Barrow County courthouse, February 16, 2026, in Winder, Georgia.
Jason Getz/AP
“I bear in mind standing up and turning my again in direction of the door, and that is after I noticed him, Colt. He was pointing the weapon, simply aiming anyplace, I suppose,” testified Melany Delira-Castaneda, who was a freshman on the time of the taking pictures.
The now 16-year-old woman testified that she did not notice she had been shot till after the gunshots subsided.
“I bear in mind standing up and I circled. I did not know I used to be shot, however I used to be. My physique was telling me to carry my arm, so I used to be holding my arm,” Delira-Castaneda testified. “I believe I used to be simply in shock and scared.”
She mentioned she was shot within the shoulder.
“I really feel like simply seeing a number of what I noticed that day, it simply sticks with me, and never with the ability to belief sure folks,” Delira-Castaneda instructed the courtroom.
Prosecutors known as the scholars to testify in an effort to indicate what Barrow County District Lawyer Brad Smith described in his opening assertion because the “horrific penalties” of the alleged actions or inaction Colin Grey took together with his son main as much as the taking pictures.
Grey is the most recent mother or father that prosecutors in varied U.S. states have tried to carry criminally culpable for his or her youngsters’s alleged lethal actions.
The daddy is charged with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree homicide and eight counts of cruelty to youngsters. He has pleaded not responsible to the fees.
Grey’s son, Colt, now 16, has been charged as an grownup and is awaiting a separate trial on a number of counts of felony homicide and aggravated assault. He has pleaded not responsible.
Killed in the shooting had been math instructor and soccer coach Richard Aspinwall, 39; math instructor Cristina Irimie, 53; and college students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, officers mentioned.
Angulo was additionally in Ryan’s class when he was shot and killed.
“This case is about this defendant and his actions – his actions in permitting a baby that he has custody over entry to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that his little one was going to hurt others,” Smith mentioned in his opening statement on Monday.
Prosecutors allege that regardless of repeatedly being warned about his son’s psychological deterioration and that he was a hazard to himself and others, Colin Grey gave the boy an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas current and allowed him to maintain the weapon propped in opposition to a wall in his bed room. The rifle, prosecutors allege, was used within the mass taking pictures at Apalachee Excessive College.
Nautica Walton, one other scholar in Ryan’s algebra class on the day of the taking pictures, testified on Tuesday that when she heard a loud bang outdoors the classroom door, “I noticed one thing was flawed.”
“I bear in mind my instructor falling to the ground, after which Taylor, [a student] in entrance of me, I bear in mind seeing her fall down earlier than I circled and noticed there was someone on the door with a weapon,” Nautica, now 16, testified.
She instructed the courtroom that she bought on the bottom subsequent to Melany Delira-Castaneda.
“I bear in mind Melany, she had blood all on her arm. I bear in mind her blood was getting on the facet of me as a result of I used to be mendacity on the facet of her,” Walton testified.
Barrow County District Lawyer Brad Smith factors to a weapon, February 16, 2026, that defendant Colin Grey allegedly gave his son, Colt Grey, as a Christmas current, which {the teenager} allegedly utilized in a mass taking pictures at Apalachee Excessive College in Winder, Georgia.
Jason Getz/AP
Walton additional testified that she was shot within the leg throughout the episode and recalled going out and in of consciousness.
“I bear in mind my instructor telling me to remain awake as a result of I used to be feeling actually drained,” Walton mentioned on the witness stand. “I bear in mind Natalie [another student] mendacity on the ground, saying she was hit and crying with a giant puddle of blood,” mentioned Walton, including {that a} classmate took off her jacket and wrapped it round her leg.
“After which I handed out after that,” she testified.
Walton additionally instructed the courtroom that for the reason that taking pictures, she has been unable to play sports activities and has been “very paranoid.”
“I do not like being in entrance of doorways at college. I do not use the toilet at college,” testified Walton, including that she had nightmares for months after the taking pictures.
Pupil Taylor Jones, now 16, testified that when she realized she had been shot within the leg, she requested a classmate to carry her hand “as a result of I used to be scared.”
She instructed the courtroom that she remembers being on the classroom ground earlier than she handed out after which waking up at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, the place she was flown to by a medical helicopter.
This mix of reserving pictures offered by the Barrow County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Workplace exhibits Colin Grey, left, and his son, Colt Grey, who’ve been charged in relation to the Sept. 4, 2024, shootings at Apalachee Excessive College in Winder, Georgia.
AP
Jones, a one-time volleyball participant on her college group, instructed the courtroom that she has since undergone a number of surgical procedures and has been unable to play sports activities.
Natalie Griffith, now 16, recalled to the courtroom wanting down at her hand throughout the taking pictures and seeing a gap and blood close to her wrist.
“I did not know this on the time, however I had one other one up on my shoulder,” she testified of a second bullet wound. “I used to be additionally anxious that I used to be going to die and the way that will have an effect on my dad and mom as a result of my dad has a coronary heart downside.”
Griffith instructed the courtroom that as she was being carried out of the classroom, she noticed Colt Grey on the ground being detained together with his fingers behind his again.
“I mentioned a number of curse phrases. I used to be very offended on the time as a result of I assumed they had been going to should amputate my hand,” Griffith testified. “I bear in mind yelling at him that we had been children, as a result of we had been children.”
Jaxxon Beaver, 16, one other scholar within the algebra class, testified that he was additionally shot within the leg.
“I observed that after I was harm, I regarded down and noticed a gap in my shorts and observed I used to be bleeding,” Beaver mentioned on the stand.
Beaver additional testified that he was unable to go to highschool for not less than three months after the taking pictures, and finally gave up on going again.
“Each time I went again to highschool, I might really feel like one thing dangerous was going to occur once more. I could not wait and needed to go residence, like proper after,” Beaver testified.
Ronaldo Vega, now 16, recalled to the courtroom seeing Colt Grey on the door carrying yellow gloves and firing a rifle that had a scope.
“He shot, I do not know what number of occasions. I went all the way down to duck,” Vega testified.
Vega testified that when the taking pictures stopped, he barricaded the classroom door with desks and chairs. He mentioned he noticed Christian Angulo curled up on the ground immobile close to the door.
“A lady was screaming that he was useless,” Vega instructed the courtroom.
