A 14-year-old boy fatally shot two fellow students and two teachers, injuring nine others, in a tragic incident at a Georgia high school on Wednesday. This marked the first mass school shooting in the U.S. since the beginning of the academic year.
The suspect, identified as Colt Gray, had previously been interviewed by law enforcement last year regarding online threats related to a potential school shooting. He was apprehended shortly after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, according to investigators.
Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, announced that Colt Gray would be charged and tried as an adult. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith stated that the shooter, armed with a semiautomatic rifle described as an “AR platform style weapon,” was swiftly confronted by deputies stationed at the school. The suspect immediately surrendered by lying on the ground.
Authorities believe Gray acted alone, but they have not yet disclosed a possible motive. The victims were identified as two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, along with two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53. Sheriff Smith informed reporters that all nine injured individuals who were hospitalized are expected to recover.
“Pure evil did what happened today,” Smith said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation later issued a statement revealing that it had investigated online threats to commit a school shooting in 2023 and local law enforcement interviewed a 13-year-old subject and his father in nearby Jackson County. The statement did not identify the teen, but Georgia officials said the statement was in connection to the subject in custody.
“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them. The subject denied making the threats online. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject,” the FBI said, adding that there was no probable cause to make an arrest.
The shooting revived both the national debate about gun control and the outpouring of grief that follows in a country where such outbursts occur with some regularity.
People in Winder, a city of 18,000 some 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Atlanta, gathered in a park for a prayer vigil later Wednesday night.
Some leaned on each other or bowed their heads in prayer, while others lit candles to honor the dead.
“We are all hurting. Because when something affects one of us it affects us all,” said Power Evans, a city councilman who addressed the gathering. “I know that here tonight, all of are going to come together. We’re going to love on one another. … We’re all family. We’re all neighbors.”
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting “and his administration will continue coordinating with federal, state, and local officials as we receive more information.”
“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,” Biden said in a statement, calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to pass “common-sense gun safety legislation.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for president, called the shooting a “senseless tragedy.”
“We’ve gotta stop it. We have to end this epidemic of gun violence,” Harris said at the start of a campaign event in New Hampshire.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, expressed his condolences on social media, stating, “Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA. These precious children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
When asked during a press conference about preventing such shootings, Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp responded, “Today is not the day for politics or policy. Today is a day for investigation and to mourn these precious Georgians that we have lost.”
According to David Riedman, who manages the K-12 School Shooting Database, this was the first “planned attack” at a school this fall. Apalachee students had returned to school last month, while many other students across the U.S. are returning this week.
Over the past two decades, the U.S. has experienced hundreds of shootings in schools and colleges, with the deadliest occurring at Virginia Tech in 2007, where over 30 people lost their lives. These tragic events have fueled ongoing debates over gun laws and the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right “to keep and bear arms.”
