Once again, classrooms and hallways turned into scenes of carnage and horror as a mass shooter killed four people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.
Wednesday’s mass shooting was the 45th school shooting so far this year and the deadliest US school shooting since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville that left six people dead.
In Georgia, the suspect is a 14-year-old student accused of killing two students and two teachers with an AR-platform weapon. Nine more people were hospitalized.
While another community grieves a senseless school shooting, investigators are revealing more details about the case. Here’s what we know:
How the devastation unfolded
The suspect left his Algebra 1 class around 9:45 a.m., his classmate Lyela Sayarath told CNN. The classroom doors lock automatically, and near the end of class, the suspect knocked on the door to try to come back in, Lyela said.
Another student went to open the door but apparently saw the gun and refused to let him in, Lyela said. That diversion may have saved her life.
“I think he wanted to come to us first,” Lyela said.
Instead, the gunman turned to a nearby classroom and opened fire, “and you hear about 10 to 15 rounds back-to-back,” Lyela said.
The first report of an active shooter came in around 10:20 a.m. Two school resource officers and other law enforcement quickly arrived, Georgia Bureau of Investigations Director Chris Hosey said.
One of the school resource officers confronted the shooter, who surrendered and was taken into custody, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.
The suspect, Colt Gray, is being held Thursday at Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Centers, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice told CNN. He will make his first court appearance Friday, department spokesperson Glenn Allen said.
Beloved teachers and students were killed
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Two 14-year-old students, Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, went to school and never came home.
The shooter also killed 53-year-old math teacher Christina Irimie and 39-year-old math teacher and assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall.
“As our community, school, and football program begins the mourning process we are so grateful for the outpouring of support,” Apalachee Football posted on X Thursday.
“To our beloved defensive coordinator Ricky Aspinwall, we will carry you heavy in our hearts. We love you Coach A!!!”
In addition to those killed, nine people were injured and hospitalized, authorities said.
Those patients are expected to recover, and “we don’t expect any more fatalities at this time,” Smith said Wednesday night.
It was not immediately clear whether the gunman knew or specifically targeted his victims, the sheriff said.
Staff alerted police through their ID cards
The school’s faculty and staff are “heroes in the actions that they took,” Hosey said. “The protocols in this school and this system activated today prevented this from being a much larger tragedy than what we had.”
One of those protocols included a safety measure adopted just one week ago.
“All of our teachers are armed with a form of an ID called Centegix,” Smith said Wednesday night. Centegix alerts law enforcement “after buttons are pressed on an ID and it alerts us that there is an active situation at the school for whatever reason and that was pressed.”
Centegix’s website says the tool has “dynamic digital mapping, real-time locating capabilities, an easy-to-use wearable panic button for school and district staff, a school visitor management system, and safe reunification capabilities enable educators to plan for and respond faster to emergencies.”
Several states, including Georgia, have introduced legislation for panic alarm systems, CNN has reported.
The teen suspect had an AR-platform weapon, authorities say
Gray, the 14-year-old suspect, is in custody and is expected to be tried as an adult, the GBI and Barrow County sheriff said.
The weapon used in the shooting was an AR-platform weapon, Hosey said Wednesday night. A law enforcement official previously told CNN it was an AR-15-style rifle.
Authorities have not given any information about how the weapon or ammunition were obtained. But investigators have spoken to the suspect and have been in touch with his family, Smith said.
It’s also not clear when and how the suspect brought the rifle to school.
“We’re still trying to clarify a lot of the timeline, from the time that he got here to school (Wednesday) until the incident,” Hosey said.
Suspect previously questioned by authorities
Gray was questioned by law enforcement last year regarding “anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting,” and the online threats included photos of guns, according to a joint statement from FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
But Gray denied making the threats online, the agencies said.
“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the agencies said. At the time, “there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels.”
Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum released more details about the case hours after the shooting Wednesday.
“The FBI confirmed that they received an anonymous tip in May 2023 regarding threats posted to an online gaming site,” Mangum posted on Facebook. “In under 24 hours, the FBI determined the post originated in Georgia and the FBI Field Officer referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division for action.”
The sheriff’s office located and interviewed a 13-year-old boy and his father shortly afterward, Mangum wrote.
“The 13 year old denied making the threats online,” the sheriff wrote. “A thorough investigation was conducted. During the course of this investigation, the gaming site threats could not be substantiated. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject.”
Questions emerge about threat before school
People attend a vigil at Jug Tavern Park following a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, U.S. September 4.(Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
Before the mass shooting, Apalachee High School had received a phone threat earlier that morning, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.
The phone call warned there would be shootings at five schools, and that Apalachee would be the first. But it’s unclear who placed that call.
Investigators have not found any evidence of other schools being targeted but are pursuing “any leads of any potential associates of the shooter that was involved in this incident,” Hosey said.
‘I really don’t want to go back’
Barrow County schools will be closed the rest of this week as the district’s 15,000 students process the tragedy that unfolded just one month into the school year.
Some Apalachee High students say they worry about going back to class.
“I want to go to school worrying about what my GPA is going to be when my year is over and worrying about my career,” 14-year-old Macey Right said.
“I really don’t want to go back. I feel like I shouldn’t have to go back to school worrying about dying.”
The-CNN-Wire
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