4 Killed in Georgia High School Mass Shooting: Here’s What to Know

Four people have been killed and nine others shot at a Georgia high school Wednesday, in the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. so far this year.

Authorities said two students and two teachers were killed by a 14-year-old student at the school, identified as Colt Gray, after Gray opened fire at Apalachee High School Wednesday morning.

Gray, who is being charged as an adult with four counts of murder, is set to appear before a local court on Friday, a day after his father Colin was arrested for allowing his son to possess a weapon.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) identified the two student victims as Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both aged 14. The slain teachers were identified as Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.

Law enforcement apprehended Gray after being called to the school with reports of an active shooter around 10:20 a.m., the GBI said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Authorities said Gray “gave up” and “immediately surrendered” and got on the ground after officers arrived “within minutes” of being called.

Among the nine people who were injured, eight are students and one is a teacher, the GBI said in a statement. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told the media on Wednesday night that all the hospitalized victims are expected to survive and “recover well.”

Smith, who was born and raised in the county, said that his “heart hurts” for the community. 

“I went to school in this school system. My kids go to this school system. I’m proud of this school system,” he said. “My heart hurts for these kids, my heart hurts for our community, but I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county. I want that to be very clear and known. Love will prevail over what happened today, I assure you of that.”

During an earlier press conference in front of the school Wednesday afternoon, Smith said “What you see behind us is an evil thing today.”

FBI Atlanta said in a statement that Gray had been questioned by law enforcement last year after authorities received “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time.” 

When interviewed by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office after the tips were received in May 2023, Gray “denied making the threats online” and his “father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the statement said. “At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels.”

The FBI, GBI, and Barrow County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the shooting. GBI director Chris Hosey said Wednesday night that Gray would be booked in jail and would appear in court “in a reasonable amount of time.”

“The priority right now for us within this investigation is to gather all the facts to make sure that we’re accurate with it, because this is a murder investigation,” Hosey said during the news conference. 

Video footage earlier on Wednesday on the scene showed students evacuating, multiple ambulances, and police congregating outside the school, which reportedly has close to 1,900 students.

Apalachee High School junior Lyela Sayarath, who told CNN that she had been sitting beside Gray on Wednesday morning before the shooting, described him as a quiet and shy student who gave single-word responses during their group projects. Sayarath said that Gray had walked out of the classroom, which had an automatic locking door, and that was going to be let back in until a classmate that went to open the door presumably saw he had a gun with him. 

“I guess he saw we weren’t going to let him in. And I guess the classroom next to me, their door was open so I think he just started shooting in the classroom,” she said, adding that they then heard consecutive gunshots. “When we heard it, most people just dropped to the floor and like kind of crawled in an area like piled on top of each other.”

Authorities said schools in Barrow County will be closed for the rest of the week and grief counseling will be made available.

“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,” Gov. Brian Kemp posted on X.

Read more: Politicians React to Deadly Mass Shooting at Georgia High School

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the shooting at a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon: “This week, kids across the country are heading back to school for the new school year. Today is supposed to be an exciting day for students and parents, but instead we’re seeing yet another horrific shooting.”

She added that the administration's “hearts are with the families in Winder” and that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have both been briefed and will continue to work with state and local law enforcement officials.

President Joe Biden said that “we cannot continue to accept this as normal” in a statement on Wednesday afternoon. “We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers.”

The shooting at Apalachee High School was the 45th school shooting in the U.S. this year, according to a data review by CNN, which together have left at least 23 people dead and 62 injured.

—Chad de Guzman contributed reporting.