Once again, classrooms and hallways turned into scenes of horror in the United States when a shooter killed four people on Wednesday (4) at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.
It is the 45th school shooting so far this year and the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville, which left six people dead.
The suspect is a 14-year-old student accused of killing two students and two teachers with an AR-caliber weapon. Nine more people were injured and hospitalized.
The suspect left Algebra class around 9:45 a.m., a classmate told CNN. The classroom doors lock automatically, and near the end of the class, the suspect knocked on the door to try to get back in, she said.
Another student opened the door but apparently saw the gun and refused to let him in, the student recounted. The shooter turned to a nearby classroom and opened fire.
A school staff member confronted the shooter, who surrendered and was taken into custody.
The suspect, identified as Colt Gray, is being held at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Centers, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice told CNN. He will make his first court appearance on Friday (6).
Two 14-year-old students, Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, were killed. The shooter is also accused of killing 53-year-old math teacher Christina Irimie and 39-year-old math teacher and assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall.
School Prepared
Investigators stated that the school’s protocols and the protection system they have in place prevented the tragedy from being much worse.
One of these protocols includes a security measure adopted just a week ago. All teachers are ‘armed’ with a form of identification called Centegix, which alerts police “after buttons are pressed to indicate that there is an active situation in the school for any reason.”
The Suspect
Gray was questioned by police last year about “anonymous reports of online threats to commit a school shooting,” according to a joint statement from the FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
But Gray denied making the online threats, the agencies said. The online threats included photographs of weapons, the statement said.
Authorities involved in the investigations have not yet provided any information on how the weapon or ammunition were obtained.
Source: CNN