Two students and two teachers were killed and nine others wounded Wednesday in a school shooting an hour outside of Atlanta, authorities said.
One suspect, a 14-year-old student, was alive and taken into custody following the gunfire at Apalachee High School, Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said at a news conference late Wednesday afternoon.
The victims of the shooting have been identified as Mason Schermerhorn, 14; Christian Angulo, 14; Richard Aspinwall, 39; Cristina Irimie, 53.
Both Aspinwall and Irimie taught math, according to the school’s website. Aspinwall was also a defensive coordinator for the football team.
The suspect, identified as Colt Gray, surrendered to law enforcement immediately after being confronted, Hosey said. He was cooperating with authorities and will be charged with murder and handled as an adult, according to Hosey and Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith.
“He gave up, got on the ground and the deputy took him into custody,” Smith said.
Hosey said the suspect used an "AR platform-style weapon." He was in custody in the Barrow County Detention Center and will be booked Wednesday night, then transferred to Regional Youth Detention Center, Hosey said.
Smith said authorities do not yet know how the shooter obtained the firearm and how he brought it into the school.
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The nine people injured include eight students and one teacher, the bureau said. All are expected to recover, Hosey said.
Smith said all nine who were taken to hospitals were injured by gunfire in some capacity. He lamented the “pure evil” and “hateful event.”
A motive was unclear. Smith said he was not aware whether the victims were targeted or whether there was a connection between the shooter and the victims.
"I don't know why it happened. I may not ever know. We may not ever know," Smith said.
The evidence does not support the involvement of any additional shooters, Hosey said. He said investigators were working to determine whether there were any associates involved in the shooting.
Investigators are also working to determine whether there are active threats against any other schools in Georgia, Hosey said.
Prior threat investigation
The sheriff's office in Jackson County, Georgia, had prior contact with the suspect in May 2023, when he was 13, in relation to a possible school shooting threat, the FBI office in Atlanta and the sheriff's office said in a joint statement Wednesday.
Jackson County is about 13 miles northeast of Barrow County.
That month, the FBI received “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time” that included pictures of guns, the joint statement said.
Within 24 hours, the FBI determined the threats were coming from Georgia, and the sheriff's office located and interviewed the teenager and his father, the statement said.
The statement said the boy denied making the online threats and at the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest, but the county "alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject."
The father in the interview with law enforcement said he had hunting guns in their house but that his son didn’t have “unsupervised access” to them, the statement said.
Hosey said Wednesday night investigators are working with the FBI to determine whether that incident had any connection to Wednesday's shooting.
Active shooter call
The first call reporting an “active shooter” came in around 10:30 a.m., Smith said. Hosey said law enforcement officers and two school resource officers responded to the scene within minutes of being alerted to the shooting.
The call came in from a teacher who pressed buttons on an ID that notifies law enforcement of an "active situation at the school," Smith said Wednesday night. He said that all teachers have one of these IDs.
All campuses of Barrow County Schools, based in Winder, Georgia, went into a "soft lockdown" with most of the activity centered around Apalachee H.S. where police cars, fire trucks and ambulances had all converged.
Students could be seen being directed to the school's football stadium.
Eight people, including three with gunshot wounds, were taken to North Georgia Medical Center facilities in Barrow, Gainesville and Braselton, a hospital spokesperson said. Five people had panic attack symptoms.
Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta confirmed that it was treating one gunshot victim.
The daughter of one of the injured victims, golf coach David Phenix, said her father’s hip was shattered after he was struck in the foot and hip. In a Facebook post, she said he was in stable condition after surgery.
Gov. Brian Kemp said in statement that he and his family were "heartbroken" by the shooting.
"We continue to work closely with local, state, and federal partners to make any and all resources available to help this community on this incredibly difficult day and in the days to come," he said.
President Joe Biden said he was mourning those who were killed, as he pushed Congress to pass gun safety legislation.
“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,” Biden said in a statement.
“Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write,” he added. “We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was “devastated” for the affected families and said the Justice Department was ready to provide support.
School has been in session at Apalachee High School since Aug. 1.
Schools will be closed for the rest of the week, Barrow County Schools Superintendent Dallas LeDuff said.
Apalachee High is Barrow County’s second high school, according to its website, and opened in 2000.
