MAYHEM IN GEORGIA AS 14-YEAR-OLD TEEN KILLED TWO STUDENTS AND TWO TEACHERS IN HIS HIGH SCHOOL

A 14-year-old teenager shot to death two students and two teachers in a Georgia high school on Wednesday, authorities said. The mayhem caused panic and terror across the school as students ran for cover in their classrooms and other buildings on the school campus.

About 10,20 am, the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office responded to Apalachee High School in Winder after reports of a shooting on campus. The shooter was soon identified as Colt Gray. Some students saw the suspect leave their algebra class a few minutes earlier, then he returned with an AR Platform Rifle and knocked for the door to be opened. A student who approached the door saw the gun and refused to open the door. Instead, Gray went into the next class and opened fire.

“My teacher goes and opens the door to see what's going on. Another teacher comes running in and tells her to close the door because there's an active shooter," said a 17-year-old high school senior, Sergio Caldera, who witnessed the gunshots, according to ABC.

Before the police arrived, two resource officers assigned to the school located the suspect, who surrendered and was taken into custody immediately without resistance.

The victims were identified as Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, as well as instructors Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. Eight other students and one teacher were injured and rushed to nearby hospitals, and survived the ordeal.

“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,” said Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, according to AP.

 Later, authorities discovered the FBI had interviewed Gray in May 2023 after receiving tips about online threats of a school shooting. At the time, authorities also interviewed the suspect’s father, who assured investigators that Gray did not have unsupervised access to his guns.  Despite the tip, authorities could not make an arrest at the time since there was no probable cause. All they did was to alert the neighboring schools and monitor the teen.

Currently, investigators are still seeking answers on how the suspect got the murder weapon into the school unnoticed.  Prosecutors plan to charge the teenager with multiple counts of murder in the adult court system.

Winder is a suburb about 45 minutes from Atlanta.