Georgia school shooting suspect's dad asks for protection after 'incalculable number of threats' in jail

The man whose teenage son is accused of killing four people at a Georgia high school asked a judge Wednesday for protection from fellow inmates because of the “incalculable number of threats” he faces behind bars.

Colin Gray is being held without bail after he was arrested and booked on suspicion of second-degree murder and manslaughter, accused of allowing his son, Colt Gray, access to the weapon used in last week's bloodshed at Apalachee High School in Winder, east of Atlanta.

Gray needs to be separated from other inmates being held by the Barrow County Sheriff's Office, his lawyers Jimmy Berry and Brian Hobbs wrote.

Widespread news coverage and social media discussion of the case has led to an "incalculable number of threats against the Defendant" by inmates "calling for both harm and violence to befall the Defendant, and in some cases, even calling for the death of the Defendant," they said.

Last week's shooting has affected almost everyone in Winder and greater Barrow County, defense lawyers said.

“It is certain that those feelings of anger and retribution manifested in the collective psyche, of both the public and the community at large, are not also represented in the individuals currently incarcerated with the Defendant at the Barrow County Detention Center,” they wrote in a motion filed Wednesday in Barrow County Superior Court.

“In fact, so many lives in the community of Barrow County have been touched in unfathomable ways, it would be reckless to assume there are NO inmates, either currently or in the near future, being housed in the Barrow County Detention, who wish to harm the Defendant," they wrote.

A representative for the sheriff's office could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.