Last Updated on 05/09/2024 by Arun jain
Four people were killed and nine others were injured A 14-year-old student opened fire Wednesday at Apalachee High School in north Georgia, authorities said.
More information is emerging about the suspect, Colt Gray, as authorities try to figure out how the teenager obtained the gun and determine a motive. The latest school shooting in the US
Previous tips about threats
More than a year ago, tips about online posts threatening a school shooting led Georgia police to interview a 13-year-old boy, but investigators didn’t have enough evidence to make an arrest. On Wednesday, the boy opened fire at his high school outside Atlanta, killing four people and wounding nine, officials said.
The teenager has been charged as an adult in the deaths of Appalachian High School students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and instructors Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimi, 53, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at a news conference. .
At least nine others — eight students and a teacher — were taken to the hospital with injuries at the school in Winder, about an hour northeast of Atlanta. All were expected to survive, Barrow County Sheriff Judd Smith said.
Gray is currently being held at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice spokesman Glenn Allen told CBS News on Thursday.
barrage of fire
Armed with an assault-style rifle, the teenager turned the gun on students in a school hallway after refusing to open the door for classmates to return to his algebra classroom, classmate Lyala Sayarath said.
Kishore had previously skipped the second period algebra classroom, and Sayarath had skipped school again, a quiet student who had recently transferred.
But he later returned and wanted to return to the classroom. Some students went to open the locked door but were turned back.
“I’m guessing they saw something, but for some reason they didn’t open the door,” Sayarath said.
When she was looked at by a widow in the doorway, she saw the student turn and heard a barrage of gunfire.
“There were about 10 or 15 of them together, back-to-back,” she said.
The math students hit the floor and crawled around scattered looking for safe corners to hide.
Two school resource officers confronted the shooter within minutes after reports of shots being fired, Hosey said. The juvenile surrendered immediately and was taken into custody.
Law enforcement was notified of the threat, according to Barrow County Sheriff Judd Smith. New security system Which was installed about a week ago. Smith noted that there were three school resource officers on campus at the time of the shooting.
Tin had previously been interviewed by the FBI
The teenager was interviewed in May 2023 after the FBI received anonymous tips about online threats of an unspecified school shooting, the agency said in a statement.
FBI Atlanta said on social media On Wednesday night, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center learned that the posts came from Georgia and “the FBI’s Atlanta field office forwarded the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office,” which is adjacent to Barrow County.
The sheriff’s office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting guns in the home but the teenager did not have unsupervised access to them. The teenager also denied making any online threats.
The sheriff’s office alerted local schools to continue monitoring the teenager, but there was no probable cause for an arrest or additional action, the FBI said.
Hosey said the state Department of Family and Children’s Services also had previous contact with the teenager and would investigate whether there was a connection to the shooting. Local news outlets reported that law enforcement searched the home of the teenager’s family in Bethlehem, Georgia, east of the high school on Wednesday.
“All the students who had to see their teachers and their fellow classmates die, who had to walk out of school limping, who looked traumatized,” Sayarath said, “is the result of not taking control.”
Authorities were still investigating how the teenager obtained the gun used in the shooting and entered the school with about 1,900 students in Barrow County, a fast-growing suburb on the edge of metro Atlanta’s ever-expanding sprawl.
Disorganized attitude
It was the latest in between Dozens of school shootings across the US In recent years, including particularly deadly ones NewtownConnecticut, ParklandFlorida, and UvaldeTexas. The classroom killings have sparked heated debates about gun control and rattled the nerves of parents whose children are used to active shooter drills in the classroom. But they have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.
Before Wednesday, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those homicides, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die in a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.
On Wednesday evening, hundreds gathered in downtown Winder’s Jug Tavern Park for a vigil. Volunteers also handed out candles and water, pizza and tissues. A few knelt as a Methodist minister read a Jewish prayer of mourning after a Barrow County commissioner.
Christopher Vasquez, 15, said he attended the vigil because he needed to feel grounded and be in a safe place.
He was in band practice when the lockdown order was issued. He said it felt like a routine drill as students lined up to hide in the band closet.
“Once we heard a bang on the door and the SWAT (team) came to get us out, that’s when I knew it was serious,” he said. “I just started shaking and crying.”
Once he was in the football stadium he finally settled down. “I was just praying that everyone I love is safe,” he said.
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