Georgia dad is the latest parent to be convicted when a child is accused of gun violence

A jury swiftly convicted a man who gave his son a gun that has been linked to the fatal shooting of two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school, the latest U.S. parent taken to court when a child is accused of violence.

Prosecutors have extended responsibility beyond the shooters if they believe there's evidence that a parent contributed to the tragedy.

Colin Gray was found guilty of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter Tuesday in the 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, has pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges.

Prosecutors said Colin Gray gave his son access to a gun and ammunition despite knowing that his mental health had deteriorated.

A look at other cases:

In Wisconsin, Jeffrey Rupnow is charged with intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a person under 18 causing death. In 2024, his daughter, Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed a student and a teacher at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison and then killed herself.

Prosecutors said Rupnow told investigators that his daughter was struggling to cope with her parents’ divorce and that he bought her guns as a way to connect with her.

Rupnow's attorney has argued that he acted reasonably. Natalie had passed a gun safety course, and Rupnow took the extra step of keeping guns in a safe, Lisa Goldman said at a hearing in July 2025.

Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first U.S. parents held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by a child. They are serving 10-year prison terms for involuntary manslaughter.

Their son, Ethan Crumbley, killed four students and wounded others at Michigan's Oxford High School in 2021. The school revealed his violent drawings to the Crumbleys a few hours before the shooting, but they declined to take him home. No one checked his heavy backpack for a gun.

The Crumbleys were not aware of their son's plans, but they had given a gun as a gift a few days earlier. Prosecutors said Ethan's actions were foreseeable and that the Crumbleys had failed to prevent the violence.

Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to misdemeanors for endorsing his son's Illinois gun permit in 2019 despite knowing that Robert Crimo III had expressed suicidal thoughts.

Three years later, Crimo III killed seven people at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, a suburb north of Chicago.

“He was criminally reckless the moment he submitted that affidavit,” prosecutor Eric Rinehart said of the father.

Crimo Jr. was sentenced to 60 days in jail. His son is serving a life prison sentence after pleading guilty in March to murder.

Deja Taylor was prosecuted in state and federal court after her 6-year-old son took her gun to school and wounded a teacher in a classroom full of students in Newport News, Virginia, in 2023.

Taylor was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for a drug-related crime connected to possessing a gun. Separately, she was sentenced to two years in state prison for child neglect.

“That is my son, so I am, as a parent, obviously willing to take responsibility for him because he can’t take responsibility for himself,” Taylor told “Good Morning America” in 2023.

The teacher, Abigail Zwerner, told a judge she wasn't sure “whether it would be my final moment on Earth.”

Colin Gray listens to his attorney during closing arguments in his trial at Barrow County Courthouse in Winder, Ga., Monday, March 2, 2026. (Abbey Cutrer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James is ordering one of Manhattan’s largest hospitals to resume providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth, weeks after the hospital ended such treatments amid funding threats from the federal government.

In a letter sent to NYU Langone, the attorney general’s office said the hospital’s decision to shutter its Transgender Youth Health Program violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws by “jeopardizing access to medically necessary healthcare for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.”

James’ office promised “further action” if the hospital does not immediately resume offering hormone therapies, puberty blockers and other care to transgender youth.

A spokesperson for NYU Langone declined to comment on the letter, which was sent on Feb. 25 but first made public this week.

One of the city’s largest hospital systems, NYU Langone announced last month that it would phase out certain gender-affirming treatments for patients under the age of 19 because of the “current regulatory environment” and recent departure of a medical director.

“We are committed to helping patients in our care manage this change,” the hospital said at the time.

The move came weeks after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a proposal to cut federal Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors, part of a suite of regulatory actions targeting transgender Americans.

The proposals, however, did not officially change federal law, and did not impact a “medical institutions’ existing duties and obligations under New York law,” according to the Feb. 25 letter signed by the attorney general’s health care bureau chief, Darsana Srinivasan.

“The sudden discontinuation of medically necessary transgender healthcare can have severe, negative health outcomes,” Srinivasan added. “Accordingly, the Attorney General is extremely concerned by your institution’s decision to cease the provision of care to this vulnerable, minority population.”

The letter gives NYU Langone until March 11 to demonstrate its compliance.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office declined to say what steps it would take if the hospital does not change its policy.

Several hospitals across the country have already paused transgender youth treatments following an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last year that promised to withhold research and education grants to hospitals that allow the “chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

The move — along with language used in the letter — was roundly condemned by trans groups and major medical associations.

“This sets a very dangerous precedent for all areas of health care, if the government can cherry-pick one area of medicine to use to withhold necessary funding from entire groups of people,” Dr. Scott Leibowitz, a psychiatrist and board member for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, said at the time.

FILE - New York Attorney General Letitia James attends a news conference, Dec. 15, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)