ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News) – The FBI said they believe the alleged shooter at a high school in Winder, Georgia, had made an online threat in May 2023.
The FBI said its National Threat Operations Center got several anonymous tips about “online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time.”
The FBI said the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office found a possible suspect, a 13-year-old boy, later identified as Colt Gray, who was interviewed, along with his father.
The father told law enforcement there were hunting guns in the house, and the boy denied making the threats online. The FBI said, at time, there was no cause for an arrest.
The teen, now 14, is being held in the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, accused of killing two students and two teachers, and hurting nine other people at Apalachee High School on Wednesday morning.
In a Wednesday night press conference, the GBI identified the slain students as 14-year-olds Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and the slain teachers as Christina Irimie, 53 , and Richard Aspinwall,39.
The agency said nine other victims – eight students and one teacher – were taken to area hospitals. At least six of the victims, including two who were shot, were taken to a Northeast Georgia Medical Center campus, according to hospital officials. The two people shot did not have life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Armed with an assault-style rifle, the teen turned the gun on students in a hallway at the school when classmates refused to open the door for him to return to his algebra classroom, classmate Lyela Sayarath said, the Associated Press reported.
The teen earlier left the second period algebra classroom, and Sayarath figured the quiet student who recently transferred was skipping school again.
But he returned later and wanted back in the classroom. Some students went to open the locked door but instead backed away.
“I’m guessing they saw something, but for some reason, they didn’t open the door,” Sayarath said.
When she looked at him through a window in the door, she saw the student turn and heard a barrage of gunshots.
“It was about 10 or 15 of them at once, back-to-back,” she said.
The math students ducked onto the floor and sporadically crawled around, looking for a safe corner to hide.
Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes after a report of shots fired went out, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. The teen immediately surrendered and was taken into custody.
The report of an active shooting brought a large number of law enforcement officers to Apalachee High School in Barrow County shortly before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The agency said the suspect will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.
Officials said an AR-platform-style gun was used.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said during a press conference that an “evil thing” happened at the school.
“First and foremost, I want to lift up our community. I want to give our sympathies to our community, our school system, our kids, our parents that had to witness this today,” Smith said.
“This hits home for us,” Gov. Brian Kemp said at a Wednesday press conference. “This is everybody’s worst nightmare.”
“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. 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,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”
At a Wednesday news conference, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is ready to provide resources to Barrow County.
Garland said he is “devastated for the families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.”
Barrow County Schools will be closed for the remainder of the week. The county is about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Apalachee High School has about 1,900 students, according to records from Georgia education officials obtained by the Associated Press. The school became Barrow County’s second-largest public high school when it opened in 2000, according to the Barrow County School System. The school is named after the Apalachee River on the southern edge of Barrow County.
Copyright 2024 WANF via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.