ATLANTA — A teenager accused of killing four people at Apalachee High School in Barrow County was previously investigated for threats about a shooting, the FBI Atlanta office said late Wednesday.

Colt Gray, 14, was charged with murder after Wednesday’s shooting, according to investigators. He was not charged after an investigation last year.

In May 2023, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting, the FBI said in a statement. The threats didn’t identify a school or when it would happen, but they contained pictures of guns.

Investigators tracked the post to Georgia and to Jackson County, where sheriff’s deputies continued the investigation. A 13-year-old, Colt Gray, was interviewed along with his father, an FBI spokesman said.

“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the FBI said. “The subject denied making the threats online.”

The Jackson sheriff’s office alerted local schools at the time, and Gray was monitored, the FBI said.

“At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels,” the FBI said.

Investigators have not said what type of gun was used in Wednesday’s shooting.

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