Georgia high school shooting suspect was investigated in 2023 for online threats, authorities say

A 14-year-old student suspected of gunning down four people at his Georgia high school Wednesday was previously investigated in connection with threats to carry out a school shooting, federal authorities said.

The suspect, then 13, was a possible suspect in connection with threats made online last year using photos of guns, the FBI’s Atlanta field office said in a joint statement with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

Within 24 hours, law enforcement officers interviewed the suspected gunman, who is not named in the statement but was identified earlier by local authorities as Colt Gray, in connection with the threats, the statement says.

The suspect denied making the threats, the statement says. His father, who was also interviewed, told investigators he had hunting guns in the home but his son did not have unsupervised access to them, according to the statement.

Authorities told local schools to continue monitoring the suspect, the statement says, but there was no probable cause to arrest him. Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said authorities are looking at whether the 2023 threat is connected to Wednesday's shooting.

The gunfire was reported around 10:20 a.m. at Apalachee High School, roughly 45 miles northeast of Atlanta, Hosey said. The teen immediately surrendered after a sheriff’s deputy working as a school resource officer “engaged” him, authorities said.

"The shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up, it would end with an OIS,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said at a news conference, using the acronym for an officer-involved shooting.

“He got on the ground and the deputy took him into custody,” Smith said.

Four people were killed after the gunman opened fire with what Hosey described as an "AR platform-style weapon."

The bureau identified them as 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.

Both Aspinwall and Irimie were math teachers, according to the school's website. Aspinwall was also a defensive coordinator for the football team.

Nine other people — eight teachers and one student — were injured in the shooting, the bureau said in a statement. The statement did not identify the victims.

Hosey said the suspect will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.

A possible motive remained unclear and Smith said it isn’t known if the suspect had specific targets when he allegedly opened fire, Smith said. The sheriff said investigators from his office and the state law enforcement agency were interviewing the teen.

Smith said those who were injured are expected to recover.

The superintendent of Barrow County School District, which Apalachee High School belongs to, said schools would remain closed for the rest of the week “as we fully cooperate to get answers to the many questions we have about what happened here.”

Smith, who said his children attend the school system, described the shooting as “personal.”

“My heart hurts for these kids,” he said. “My heart hurts for this community.”

"Hate will not prevail," he added. "Love will prevail."

The Republican and Democratic candidates for president reacted to the shooting, with Donald Trump calling the gunman "sick and deranged" on his social media platform and Kamala Harris telling a New Hampshire rally "we have to end this epidemic of gun violence."

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he was "heartbroken" by the shooting.

"This is a day every parent dreads, and Georgians everywhere will hug their children tighter this evening because of this painful event," he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com