Georgia high school shooting: 14-year-old suspect accused of killing 4, injuring 9 was previously investigated in 2023 for online threats

Four people were killed and nine others injured in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., Wednesday, officials said. A 14-year-old student is in custody and is expected to be charged with murder for the attacks.

Officials said that the victims are 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and educators Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. There is no known connection between the shooter and the victims, authorities said, adding that authorities are still investigating a motive.

The nine injured were hospitalized and are expected to survive.

During a press conference on Wednesday evening, Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, confirmed the deaths to reporters. Hosey also confirmed that the suspect is Apalachee student Colt Gray, who is alive and in custody at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center. He said that Gray “will be charged with murder and handled as an adult.” Gray will face a virtual hearing Friday at 8:30 p.m., according to Fox 5 Atlanta.

“The priority right now for us in this investigation is to gather all the facts,” Hosey said. “This is still a very active investigation.”

In a statement released Wednesday night, the FBI Atlanta office acknowledged that the agency had received several anonymous tips in May 2023 about threats of a school shooting.

The FBI said it had referred the tips to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office in Georgia, which had investigated "the same subject in custody related to today's shootings." However, the FBI said, "the subject denied making the threats online," and the father assured officials his son did not have unsupervised access to the family's guns.

A sheriff's report obtained by Yahoo News said that users of the social media platform Discord had tipped off the FBI to a potential school shooting last year.

“I never imagined that I would be speaking to the media in my career over something that happened today — pure evil that happened today,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told reporters Wednesday evening, choking up a bit. “I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county.”

Smith said that the sheriff’s office was speaking with Gray and had been in contact with his family, but did not elaborate on what came from those conversations. Smith said they had not identified the weapon at this point.

The school superintendent said Barrow County schools are closed for the rest of the week and crisis counseling is available to the students.

What happened?

Around 10:20 a.m. ET officers from multiple agencies and emergency personnel were dispatched to the school after calls of an active shooter. About an hour later, the school was evacuated, with students being released to their families. Law enforcement and emergency responders were seen on campus, with at least two people being put into helicopters to be flown to hospitals, local news channel WSB-TV reported.

The Atlanta branch of the FBI also said it was assisting with the investigation of what was happening at the school.

School officials and the Barrow County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Yahoo News.

A 17-year-old student told ABC News that he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots. He said his chemistry teacher locked the door as the rest of the class huddled in the back. The student said he could hear gunshots and screams and, at one point, someone banged on the classroom door and shouted “open up” multiple times. The student and his class were later evacuated to the football field.

One student told a reporter for Fox 5 Atlanta that he initially thought the gunshots were fake until he heard screaming. He described being evacuated from the building and seeing a body in one of the rooms. “There was a gun lying on the ground, with the bullets and the blood,” he said.

“They prepare you for these things,” a 15-year-old girl told the New York Times. “But in the moment, I started crying. I got nervous.”

President Biden issued a statement in response to the shooting, saying, “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. 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.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was campaigning in New Jersey on Wednesday, called the shooting "a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies."

In a post on Truth Social, former president Donald Trump called the shooting “tragic” and the suspect “sick and deranged.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters he was “devastated” by the “terrible tragedy.”

“We are still gathering information but the FBI and ATF are on the scene, working with state, local and federal partners,” Garland said. “The Justice Department stands ready to provide resources or support to the Winder community needs in the days ahead.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wrote on X, “I have directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state. We will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners as we gather information and further respond to this situation.”

This is a developing story. Check back here for updates.