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Two students and two teachers were killed following a mass shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday morning.
The shooting took place at Apalachee High School in Winder, an hour outside of Atlanta.
Law enforcement yesterday named the suspected gunman as 14-year-old Colt Gray – a student at the school who surrendered to authorities on the scene. He will be charged with murder and tried as an adult, authorities said.
Mason Schermerhorn, Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, all lost their lives in the “senseless” violence.
The investigation is ongoing with yet another community reeling from gun violence in what is the 385th mass shooting in the country this year.
“My heart hurts for these kids. My heart hurts for this community. But I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.
Here’s everything we know about the Georgia high school shooting.
What happened?
The school day had only just begun when the violence unfolded.
In the moments before the suspect opened fire, his classmate, Lyela Sayarath, revealed she had been sat “elbow to elbow” with the alleged shooter in algebra class before he got up and left the room.
The accused returned and tried to get back into the classroom, the 16-year-old told CNN, but when a student went to open the door for him, they “backed up” - presumably having noticed the firearm.
“I’m pretty sure she saw that he had a gun and so she backed away,” she said.
Then, Sayarath and her classmates pushed desks to act as a blockade and “got down low”.
Once the suspect wasn’t able to get back inside - the doors lock automatically once closed - he appeared to turn to the classroom next door.
The shooting started.
Down the hall Stephen Kreyenbuhl, was in the middle of a second-period social studies class when the institution went into lockdown. Just moments later, the 26-year-old said he heard gunfire ring out.
“Pop, then pause, then six shots, pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop,” he toldThe Washington Post. “My students were on the ground... Some crying, some consoling, some swearing.”
Students all over the school heard the shots ring out. Julie Sandoval took cover and sent a message to her parents telling them how much she loved them, CNN reports. She apologized for not being “a perfect daughter”.
Another mother, Anetra Pattaman, told her daughter: “No matter what you do, keep texting me, just text me, just text me, to let me know that you’re OK.”
At 10.20am the alarm was raised when someone pushed a wearable panic button to notify authorities of an active shooter - only installed a week ago, according to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith.
Minutes later, police were on the scene and “immediately encountered” the accused. He surrendered straight away.
“He gave up, got on the ground. And the officers took him into custody,” Smith told a press conference yesterday.
More police swooped onto the school once the suspect was detained, helping to evacuate the students and paramedics tended to the wounded.
Meanwhile, parents endured an agonizing wait as reports began to circulate that four people at the school had been shot.
By 1pm, local officials started reuniting students into the arms of their parents.
At 2.15pm, the bureau confirmed that four people had died — two teachers and two students. They were later identified at a press conference on Wednesday night.
A vigil was held for the victims of the shooting in the evening where the community came together in mourning.
Who is the suspected shooter?
GBI identified the suspected shooter as 14-year-old Colt Gray, a student at Apalachee High School.
Now it has since emerged that the FBI and the police had interviewed Gray and his father Colin Gray in May 2023 over “online threats to commit a school shooting,” from the social media platform Discord, which contained photographs of guns, the FBI’s Atlanta office said in a statement.
Police allegedly traced the online threats to Gray, then 13 years old, and interviewed him and his father, who said he had guns in the house.
When deputies visited Gray’s home on Rice Creek Court in Jefferson, Georgia, in 2023, they spoke to Gray who claimed he had deleted his Discord account before he and his father moved to their new home, according to a report obtained by WSB-TV.
He remains in police custody.
What have students and parents said?
Some of Apalachee High’s 1,900 students and their parents recounted the terrifying experience.
Sergio Caldera, a 17-year-old senior, told ABC News that he was in chemistry class when shots rang out. “My teacher goes and opens the door to see what’s going on,” Caldera told the outlet. “Another teacher comes running in and tells her to close the door because there’s an active shooter.”
Caldera said someone banged on their classroom door and shouted “open up” several times. Afterward, he heard more gunshots and screams.
Another student, Camille Nelms, told WXIA about taking shelter as bullets came flying into her classroom: “I was crying, I didn’t want to die that way…I don’t want to meet the Lord that way.”
Student Miguel Eduardo Perichi Orta told WXIA he was “was shaking, scared” when he heard a “loud boom” followed by “banging” near his classroom. “I saw a huge puddle of blood in the classroom, and that really, it like dropped my stomach,” he said. “It was heartbreaking to see that.”
Orta also said he was “disappointed” in his school. “If something like this can happen here when you think it’s a normal day, it can happen anywhere,” he said.
In a Facebook post, one parent, whose child was close enough to hear gunshots, called the incident “a parent’s worst nightmare.”
How have officials responded?
In the aftermath of the shooting, all other Barrow County Schools were on a “soft lockdown,” the county school district said. Other Georgia school districts have offered their condolences and prayers to Apalachee High School.
Barrow County school system superintendent Dallas LeDuff said on Wednesday afternoon that the high school will be closed for the remainder of the week. He added that grief counseling will be available for the community.
President Joe Biden said “we cannot continue to accept this as normal” in the wake of the shooting.
“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” the president said in a statement. “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.”
At a New Hampshire rally, Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, said: “This is a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.”
“We gotta stop it and we have to end this epidimeic of gun violence in our country once and for all - it doesn’t have to be this way,” she added.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz said there was “work to be done” to prevent similar “tragic” incidents. He said they are “all too common.”
Former president Donald Trump posted 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.”
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has directed all available state resources to the school, he said in a post on X. He also urged “all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson called for swift justice in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“Our prayers go out today for the Apalachee High School community, and especially the victims and their families who have endured this terrible tragedy,” he said in a statement. “The officers of the Winder Police Department are commended for their quick action in apprehending the suspect.”
Gun safety groups were mourning yet another gun violence tragedy — the 385th mass shooting this year in the US, according to Gun Violence Archive.
“Students are barely a month into the semester. We don’t have to live like this. Our children shouldn’t be dying like this,” Everytown for Gun Safety posted on X.
Gun safety group Giffords similarly wrote: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Our children should be able to go to school without being met with gun violence.”
Who were the victims?
Mason Schermerhorn, Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, all lost their lives in the “senseless” violence and were idenfitied by the GBI on Wednesday evening.
Angulo has been described by friends and family as “a beautiful soul” who was “loved by so many”.
His sister, Lisette Angulo, shared the family’s heartbreak and shock over his death in a GoFundMe.
“Unfortunately my baby brother was one of the victims of the school shooting at Apalachee High School,” she confirmed.
Mason Schermerhorn, 14, was identified by family members as one of the dead students. A family friend, Doug Kilburn, told The New York Times that the teenager “really enjoyed life” and “always had an upbeat attitude about everything”.
He enjoyed spending time with his family, playing video games, telling jokes and trips to Walt Disney World, the paper reported.
Math teacher Aspinwall was a 39-year-old married father-of-two and math teacher at the school.
He died while “protecting his students”, a Gofundme page set up for his family says.
A tribute to the teacher, who also coached the school football team, posted on Facebook said the Gofundme fundraiser would go towards supporting his wife and two daughters.
“We are all in shock over the news that Ricky Aspinwall lost his life protecting his students,” the page, set up by Julie Woodson, reads. It has so far raised more than $100,000.
Irimie, 53, was also a math teacher at the school. She was described as “an incredible teacher” by a friend in a post on Facebook.
“Christina Irimie was an incredible teacher. I feel blessed to have known her, but she went into her school building today, to teach math because she was amazing at it, and she will never come home to her family and friends,” the friend wrote.
Special education teacher David Phenix was among the nine people hospitalized. “We are so thankful for all the texts, calls, and messages about my dad, David Phenix. There was a shooting this morning at Apalachee High School and my dad was shot in the foot and in the hip, shattering his hip bone. He arrived to the hospital alert and awake. He just got out of surgery and is stable,” his daughter Katie Phenix posted on Facebook.
“We will update as we hear new information. We are so, so lucky, but please keep our family as well as the AHS family in your prayers.”
Arrest of suspect’s father
On Thursday evening Gray’s father was arrested in connection with the shooting at Apalachee High School, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Colin Gray, 54, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
Earlier on Thursday CNN reported that Colin Gray had told investigators he bought his son the assault rifle allegedly used to kill two students and two teachers as a Christmas present last year.
The purchase came months after the FBI told local law enforcement in May 2023 about anonymous online threats about a school shooting. Colt Gray denied he was behind them and no arrest or other legal action was taken.
