Unacceptable Sandy Hook mother reacts to JD Vance s comments on Georgia shooting
Unacceptable Sandy Hook mother reacts to JD Vance s comments on Georgia shooting
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00:00The father allegedly gave the gun to his son, despite knowing that his son was a threat to
00:04others. What other evidence could play a major role for prosecutors here?
00:09So Jake, the key that prosecutors have to establish is that the father acted recklessly.
00:13And so to that end, I think prosecutors are going to be drawn to the fact that last year
00:17in May of 2023, Georgia police visited the home because of complaints about
00:22the son posting online, fantasizing about a school shooting. So I would be looking to prove
00:27a, that the father knew about that visit and b, that the father knew about those postings.
00:32I think if you combine that with the fact that the father then gave the 14 year old an AR-15
00:36as a gift, I think you have a strong case there. And Ellie, this is the second time
00:40in the history of the United States where a court has held parents responsible for the child's
00:48alleged actions in a school shooting. Is this going to become a prosecutorial trend,
00:54do you think? And how could this impact what happens in this case, impact future cases?
00:59I do think this is the start of a trend, Jake. Now that's not to say that every parent will
01:03get charged in a school shooting case. Every case has to rise and fall on its own merits.
01:08But I can tell you for sure that when prosecutors come across a rare and extreme circumstance like
01:13this, they will get together and say, have we seen anything like this before? And how has it
01:18been charged in the past? And now prosecutors in the future, unfortunately, will have two examples,
01:22the Michigan case and now this one where parents contributed allegedly to what happened and have
01:27been charged. So I do think in the future, sadly, we are going to see more charges along these lines.
01:33And prosecutors say that more charges are going to come against the suspected teen shooter.
01:38Which ones are you expecting? I think we will see charges relating to all the individuals who are
01:43shot and injured, but not killed. And that's not unusual, Jake. Typically, what you see is
01:47the murder charges get lodged immediately so that police can make an arrest so that the shooter can
01:52be put in custody, taken off the streets. And then you'll see the other lesser charges, still
01:56very important, but lesser charges, aggravated assault, attempted murder. I think those are
02:00going to follow soon. Eli Honig, thanks so much. CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Georgia and she brings
02:07us now more on today's court hearing and a community experiencing horrific grief.
02:15You're charged with four counts of felony murder. The 14-year-old suspect in the Georgia
02:21high school shooting in court today with families of the victims just feet behind him.
02:26If convicted, Colt Gray would be the youngest mass school shooter since 1998. The penalty for
02:33the crimes for which you are charged does not include death. It includes life without the
02:40possibility of parole or life with the possibility of parole. Just minutes after the suspected shooter
02:46left the courtroom, where he did not enter a plea, his father walked in for his own first
02:51appearance. Currently charged with two counts of felony murder in the second degree. You're
02:58charged with four counts felony involuntary manslaughter. You're charged with eight counts
03:06of felony cruelty to children in the second degree. An arrest warrant for Colin Gray alleges
03:13he gave his son a firearm when he knew his son was a threat to himself and to others. It's only
03:19the second time a parent has been charged in connection with a mass shooting carried out by
03:23their child. The GBI has arrested Colin Gray, age 54, in connection to the shooting here at
03:31Appalachee High School. Last April, in an unprecedented case, the parents of Ethan Crumley
03:37were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years for involuntary manslaughter. The swift arrest of
03:43suspect Colt Gray in Georgia, partly credited to the new security system the school implemented
03:48just one week ago. A mobile panic button teachers carry on their I.D. badges, immediately alerting
03:54law enforcement and school authorities. You think this saved lives? 100 percent saved lives. And
04:00unlike the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, officers were able to swiftly pinpoint the
04:05shooter's location. 26, I think 26 alerts during the incident when it started. Within five minutes
04:12of the first alert going off, we had this suspect in custody. For the victims, the stay in court
04:18offers only some solace. The mother of 14-year-old Christian Angulo, one of the students fatally
04:23shot Wednesday, fought back tears as she talked about her loss. He didn't deserve this. He didn't
04:32deserve to die like this. I miss him. Our thanks to Isabel Rosales for that report. I want to bring
04:42in someone who works tirelessly to protect children from gun violence. Nicole Hockley
04:48is the co-founder and co-CEO of the non-profit Sandy Hook Promise. We've been talking to Nicole
04:55for years. Her son Dylan, along with 19 other children and six adults, were murdered in the
05:01horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in December 2012. Nicole, we have a picture of
05:06your beautiful boy up on the screen right now. It is difficult to accept the fact that it's been
05:11nearly 12 years since you and your family were forced into such unspeakable tragedy, and yet
05:16here we are again. Another mass shooting in a school in the United States. Four families shattered
05:21forever. Another community thrown into trauma. It's hard to think of anything positive that could
05:27come out of such a senseless act of violence, but you and others continue to work hard to try to
05:33find a way to find solutions to fight this. What kind of policies do you think have worked in
05:39preventing gun violence? Well, there's actually quite a lot of policies that can work. Things
05:46like secure storage and temporary transfer, also known as an extreme risk protection order. These
05:52are ways to temporarily remove access to firearms from someone who could be in crisis or at risk of
05:58hurting themselves or someone else. Georgia doesn't have a lot of these state laws on the books. I'm
06:02not sure if they have any state laws on the books, so we really want to work with all of the legislators
06:07there on all sides to advance policies like that that could have helped with this case and could
06:14certainly, and have been proven, to stop shootings elsewhere. So there's a lot of simple opportunity
06:20that we're seeing work in other states that we can certainly implement in Georgia as well. This is
06:25now the second case in the U.S. where we see a parent being held legally responsible for their
06:30child's alleged actions in a school shooting. Do you expect this to become the new normal?
06:35Do you support it? And what else needs to change? I really hope this doesn't become the
06:43new normal because that means that parents are still not taking their responsibilities
06:49very seriously in terms of how they keep their children safe from being able to access firearms
06:55and how they respond to signs of a crisis or threat. However, I think this is a wake-up call,
07:02and I do applaud, you know, what happened in Michigan, and I applaud that this is being
07:06prosecuted here in Georgia as well, and I think that this is a wake-up call to any parent that
07:11has guns in the home. That's not to say you are a bad parent. It is to say, are you being as safe as
07:17you need to be? Are you recognizing signs of crisis in your child? Are you taking action and
07:23getting them the support that they need, and are you ensuring that they don't have access to things
07:28like AR-15s, especially if they're troubled? These are simple responsibilities that good
07:34firearm owners practice, so I think this is a wake-up call to say you're not immune to this
07:40just because of some other laws that are on the books at the moment, like PLACA. This is something
07:44that you have to be responsible for. You're responsible for your child. You're responsible
07:48for their actions. At a campaign event in Phoenix yesterday, former President Trump's running mate,
07:53Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, was asked what specific policies he supports to end this epidemic of
07:59school shootings. I want to play some of his answer and get your reaction. Strict gun laws
08:05is not the thing that is going to solve this problem. I don't like that this is a fact of life,
08:09but if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are
08:15soft targets, and we have got to bolster security in our schools. I don't want my kids to go to
08:20school in a place where they feel like you've got to have additional security,
08:23but that is increasingly the reality that we live in. What's your reaction?
08:31The reality that we live in is that this is happening and that it's preventable.
08:35Accepting that and saying that's just the way it is in America, that this is the way we have
08:40to live our lives, is completely unacceptable. There were armed security at this school. There
08:45were armed security at Uvalde. There are armed securities at a lot of mass shootings.
08:49They are there to protect, but it's often too late. You need to be ahead of it. You need to
08:54be focusing on the signs and getting the person help before they ever access a firearm and then
08:59bring it to the school. I think this is nobody wants their child to go to school in a fortress.
09:04We also can't build fortresses in every place of America. More guns is not the answer. More
09:11security is not the answer. Getting more help, more tools and resources, and more good gun safety
09:17regulation on the books is proven to work in terms of suicide and homicide in mass shootings.
09:22I refuse to accept that this is our reality, especially when we have created this reality
09:28and have the power to change it. Nicole, what's your advice for the
09:33families who lost their loved ones, and how are you and your family doing?
09:40My advice to the families who lost, I mean, my heart is with them completely, and that needs to
09:46be a core focus right now. What sort of help are they getting, and how are we helping them move
09:52through this? Because you never get over it. It's almost 12 years since Dylan was killed,
09:56and I still grieve for him every single day, and I will until the day I die,
10:00as will my surviving son. I reached out to him afterwards, and I said, how are you doing? And
10:04he said, this is heartbreaking. He said, even the social media, the texts that are going out
10:10on social media as children in that school were reaching out to their parents.
10:13So I think we're holding that community in our hearts, and we're going to help them through
10:18this in the same way. So many communities have helped so many other people through this,
10:23and it's going to take time. So I would just say, hold on to the ones that you love,
10:27but also, when you're ready, use your voice if you want to and if you're able to. Demand
10:34better legislation. Demand more accountability. Demand people recognize the signs, and even demand
10:41things like understanding, getting access to social media records. We know that firearms
10:46are marketed to kids. This father gave his son an AR-15 as a holiday gift. I don't know if the child
10:53put that on his wish list for Santa because he'd been marketed from all the things that he saw on
10:59social media or not. These are questions that we need to ask to understand why are young people
11:04turning to firearms, and what can we do to help them make better choices as well?