"From the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry": Mother of Georgia school shooting suspect speaks

The mother of the alleged Apalachee High School shooter in Winder, Georgia, apologized to the families of the four fatalities and said her son “is not a monster.”

“From the bottom of my heart, I am very sorry,” said Marcee Gray in a letter sent this Wednesday to CNN and addressed to the families of the victims.

Colt Gray, 14, opened fire last week inside the high school, killing students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14; and mathematics teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.

Full letter from Marcee Gray:

To the parents and families of those affected by the tragic events at Apalachee High School:

I want to say that I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. If I could take Mason and Christian's place, I would do it without a second thought.

 As a mother, I have always said that the loss of one of my children would be the one thing I couldn't recover from. I feel all your pain and devastation. I cry and grieve with you. My heart breaks for the two teachers who gave their lives in the service of teaching and protecting our children.

We are all living a nightmare right now and I personally will never forgive myself for what has happened. My son Colt is not a monster. He's my oldest baby. He is calm, attentive, affectionate, funny and extremely intelligent.

Please pray for him and the rest of our family, as I am praying for all of you every moment of every day. Love is the only thing that will help us overcome this tragedy.

Colt Gray will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.

His father Colin Gray, 54, faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to minors, after agreeing to that last Christmas he had given his son the AR gun that Colt used in the shooting.