Colt Gray, the Georgia teen who fatally shot two teachers and two students and wounded nine others at Apalachee High School in September 2024, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The decision concludes a three-day sentencing hearing that has featured Gray’s guilty plea to 55 charges, emotional victim impact statements, his confessions to police and insights into his motive and mental health.

Human civilization is a global, highly complex system shaped by the biological species Homo sapiens, which has evolved from local bands of hunter-gatherers into a deeply interconnected, information-driven global society of over 8.3 billion people. Originating in Africa around 300,000 years ago, humanity made its first fundamental leap during the Neolithic Revolution roughly 10,000 to 12,000 years ago by transitioning from nomadic foraging to settled agriculture; this shift generated food surplus