Students injured in a 2024 shooting took the stand Tuesday on the second day of a trial for the accused shooter’s father, who allegedly provided his son access to a firearm.
Colin Gray faces two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, 20 counts of cruelty to children, and five counts of reckless conduct in connection with the shooting. His son, Colt Gray, has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder. A trial date has not been set for him yet.
Fourteen minors spoke about the morning of Sept. 4, when Colt Gray allegedly opened fire at the school, killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine others. The victims were identified as Mason Schermerhorn, 14; Christian Angulo, 14; Richard Aspinwall, 39; and Cristina Irimie, 53.
‘I reached down and noticed that I got hit’
Nautica Watson recalled sitting down at her second period class on Sept. 4, 2024 when she heard a loud bang.
“I remember my teacher falling to the floor in front of me,” Watson said in court Tuesday. “I remember seeing her fall down before I turned around and saw there was somebody at the door with like weapon.”
Watson said she got down on the ground with her classmates when her teacher pulled her to the side to check if she was OK. Her teacher told her to stay awake.
“I remember just a really like, I felt like a really hot spot at the bottom of my leg,” Watson said. “And then I reached down and noticed that I got hit. And then my friend Brittany took off her jacket and wrapped it around my leg. And then I passed out after that.”
Since then, Watson hasn’t been able to play sports due to leg pain, and she has felt very paranoid while at school. Months after the shooting, she had consistent nightmares.
“I don’t like being in front of the doors at school,” Watson said. “I, like, don’t use the bathroom at school. I always stay with somebody very closely after the incident happened.”
Natalie Griffith was in algebra class when she heard a ringing in her ear.
“I looked down and there was blood,” Griffith said about her left wrist, where she was shot twice. She recalled starting to scream and falling to the floor.
Griffith was eventually carried out of the room by first responders. She remembers worrying about her friend, whose classroom was around the corner.
“I was also worried that I was going to die and how that would affect my parents,” Griffith recalled.
She remembers seeing the 14-year-old shooter when she was being carried out.
“I was very angry, especially at the time, because I thought that they were going to have to amputate my hand,” she said.
‘If I don’t make it I love you all’
An Appalachee High School student identified as William Cariker sent out a mass text to eight of his loved ones when the shooter was at his classroom door.
“There’s a school shooting if I don’t make it I love you all,” Cariker wrote.
The shooting lasted for a few seconds, Cariker said. But when he called out to his friend, Christian, who was closest to the classroom door, he didn’t respond. Cariker knew Christian since kindergarten, he said.
Makaylah Brown, who was in the same classroom as William, remembered shielding her friends eyes so she wouldn’t see Christian’s body.
Aryanna Norman said she had to be put on anxiety medication following the shooting.
“Even to go on a walk around my neighborhood, anxiety would fill my head and I’d feel like somebody would drive past me and shoot me,” Norman said in court Monday.
She sometimes recalls seeing her classmate, Christian.
“What happens when I recall that day is usually I just see Christian laying on the floor, lifeless,” she said.
