Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Teen Asked For Mental Health Help Before Ga. Shooting, Aunt Says
Colt Gray, 14, had been 鈥渂egging for months鈥 for mental health help before he allegedly carried out the attack Wednesday that left four people dead and nine others injured, according to an aunt of his. He 鈥渨as begging for help from everybody around him,鈥 Annie Brown, the aunt, told The Washington Post. 鈥淭he adults around him failed him.鈥 Brown, who lives in Central Florida, declined to elaborate on the teen鈥檚 mental health challenges but said she tried from afar to get him help. (Blaskey and Bailey, 9/5)
Georgia officials charged the father of the suspected Apalachee High gunman with two counts of second-degree murder Thursday 鈥 the most severe ever filed against the parent of an alleged school shooter. The arrest came less than 36 hours after two students and a pair of teachers were gunned down with an AR-15-style rifle that, investigators allege, the man allowed his 14-year-old son to possess. Along with murder, Colin Gray, 54, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children. His son, Colt Gray, has been charged with four felony counts of murder. (Cox, Rich and Blaskey, 9/5)
Also 鈥
A woman who was severely injured when a gunman killed five girls and wounded her and four other girls during an attack on their one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania has died 18 years later, a funeral director said Thursday. ... Rosanna S. King, 23, was 6 years old at the time and had been considered the most severely injured survivor. She had been shot in the head and the attack left her unable to talk and needing a tube to be fed. She was dependent on others for personal care and mobility. (Scolforo, 9/5)
A new report finds the number of children who lose their lives to injury and gun violence has risen in almost all states since 2018. Rates of deaths caused by injuries overall have also risen, with firearms being the leading cause of those injuries in many states, report a team led by Eugenio Weigend Vargas. He's a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. (9/6)