A 14-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday after four people were killed, including two students, and nine others wounded in a school shooting in Georgia.
Police took student Colt Gray into custody after he was accused of killing two students and two teachers during a rampage at Apalachee High School in Winder, which is roughly an hour northeast of Atlanta.
Officials identified the victims as Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said the teen suspect will face murder charges as an adult. He is behind bars and will have his initial court appearance “in a reasonable amount of time,” the director said
The nine wounded were each hit by gunfire, the GBI director said. All are expected to survive.
“This is everybody’s worst nightmare,” Gov. Brian Kemp said during a Wednesday night news conference. “I just want to offer my sincere condolences and our thoughts and prayers to the families that have lost loved ones, for those that are injured and continuing to fight through just a tragic time.”
The FBI’s Atlanta Field Office said in a statement Wednesday that the suspected school shooter was questioned in May 2023 after the agency received “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unspecified date and time.”
Members of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, which borders Barrow County, interviewed the then-13-year-old boy and his father about the threats, the FBI said.
“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the statement read. “The subject denied making the threats online. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject.”
The FBI said there was no probable cause at that time to make an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action.
Mr. Hosey said the shooter used an “AR-platform style weapon” in the attack. The director said it’s still under investigation how he got a hold of the weapon and how he got it into the school.
The GBI director said that the local Department of Family and Children Services had contacts with the family as well. He added that there is no evidence that other schools were targeted by the shooter on Wednesday
“It’s tragic when someone preys on kids,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said late Wednesday. “Like I said earlier, hate is not going to prevail in our county, and hate’s not going to prevail in our state.”
The GBI said they received calls about an active shooter at the high school around 10:20 a.m. Wednesday.
Authorities said police officers and emergency personnel rushed to the scene. The suspect quickly surrendered when he was confronted by armed campus police officers.
Sheriff Smith said there was no known connection between the shooter and the victims.
Police said earlier that students were evacuated to the school’s football stadium following the gunfire. Sheriff Smith said officials worked to reunite students with their families throughout the afternoon.
“The heroes that we need to remember is our faculty and staff here at this school,” Mr. Hosey said. “They acted admirably. They were heroes in the actions that they took. The protocols in this school and this system activated today prevented this from being a much larger tragedy than what we had here today so I want to recognize them.”
Barrow County Schools Superintendent Dallas LeDuff said schools will remain closed for the rest of the week.
“Our central offices will remain open, where we have grief counseling available for our community every day this week and thereafter, as we support each other through this terrible event,” Mr. LeDuff said.
Former President Donald Trump, the current Republican candidate for president, said on Truth Social, “Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA.”
“These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster,” Mr. Trump continued.
President Biden said earlier he is mourning the lives lost in the shooting and is “thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed.”
“What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart,” the president said. “Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”
Mr. Biden also urged Republicans to help pass “common-sense gun safety legislation,” which would include banning “assault weapons” and ending “immunity for gun manufacturers.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene assisting in the investigation.
Apalachee High School has about 1,900 students, according to records from Georgia education officials. The school has been in session since Aug. 1.
Apalachee High became Barrow County’s second-largest public high school when it opened in 2000, according to the Barrow County School System. It’s named after the Apalachee River on the southern edge of Barrow County.
• This article is based on wire service reports.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.