The making of an alleged school shooter: Missed warnings and years of neglect
The spiraling path that led Colt to a jail cell offers an extraordinary case study on the making of yet another young man accused of gunning down children in their classrooms and hallways — a story, like so many before it, of neglect, dysfunction and missed or ignored warnings. This account of the circumstances that preceded last month’s bloodshed is based on interviews with family members and officials as well as a review of private messages, police documents and school records.
Over three years, institutions charged with protecting children and the wider public encountered Colt in times of crisis but did not prevent the violence that would follow*,* The Post examination found*.* In these moments, Colt and his family interacted with Georgia child welfare workers, four school systems, three county sheriffs departments and two local police agencies.
The prosecution probably had no incentive to make a deal, and he knew he had no chance of winning at trial. Probably thought the judge would appreciate the plea.
It’s commonly called an “open plea” or “non-negotiated plea.” The defendant admits guilt, but has no pre-arranged agreement with the prosecutor about sentencing. It will be followed by a sentencing hearing.
Seeing how thoroughly and promptly his Dad was found guilty of everything, there wasn’t much point in dragging this out further.
The kid almost certainly doesn’t meet the legal definition of sufficiently insane to not be guilty. But at the same time he’s already on record as being really lousy at good decisions where guns and shooting up schools are concerned. This is perhaps just one more stupid decision. Albeit one with a bunch of attorney oversight.
but he does meet the definition of kid. Why have a juvenile justice system if 14 yo are going to get charged as an adult? Was his mind sufficiently developed to understand the consequences of his actions?
We in the USA have slowly lowered the age of “He shoulda knowed better than that!” for particularly egregious examples of [that]. Of which this case is (IMO) reasonably one of of those egregious examples.
Age 14 is about high school freshman. Did I have great adult-level judgement as a 14-yo? Hell no. Did I know that shooting at people with the intent to kill them was illegal and just plain not a nice thing to do? I sure did.
If the kid is a psychopath with violent tendencies, he was sorta doomed from birth to do this or something else similar at some point. Like Kohberger who made it all the way to grad school before his psychopathy boiled over into overt violence. The only upside to putting him away now is he doesn’t end up with a string of unsolved murders leading up to the one he finally gets caught for.
It will be interesting to see how this parental prosecution will be expanded beyond school shootings into other crimes done by teenagers and youth…and maybe even young adults.