The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said that a shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County on Wednesday morning resulted in four fatalities and nine hospitalizations.
At a press briefing in the afternoon, the GBI stated that two of the deceased were students and two of the deceased were teachers.
The gunman was recognized by the GBI as Apalachee High student Colt Gray, 14, at the age of 14.
Following reports of an active shooter at 10:20 a.m., the bureau stated that sheriff’s office deputies arrived and met the suspect, who “immediately surrendered to these officers, and he was taken into custody.”
According to the GBI, Gray will face murder charges. Authorities were investigating how Sheriff Jud Smith got a gun and brought it inside the school on Wednesday morning, according to Sheriff Smith. There was no indication of the weapon’s identity.
The GBI identified the victims as the following:
- Teacher Christina Irimie, 53
- Teacher Richard Aspinwall, 39
- 14-year-old Mason Schermerhorn and
- 14-year-old Christian Angulo
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reports that nine more people were hospitalized as a result of the incident. One of the injured was a teacher, while the other eight were pupils.
Sheriff Smith described how the suspect was apprehended, saying, “Obviously the shooter was armed. Our school resource officer engaged him and the shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up, that it would end with an OIS (officer-involved shooting). He gave up, got on the ground and the (officer) took him into custody.”
“The shooter was interviewed, speaking with investigators earlier, along with the GBI,” Sheriff Smith stated. “It is helping our investigation.”
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gray was actually the subject of an investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in 2023 after he allegedly threatened to carry out a school shooting online with images of guns. We didn’t know the location or the time.
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Gray at the time was thirteen years old. Although the father possessed hunting rifles in the house, he claimed at the time that his son did not have “unsupervised access” to them. Additionally, the boy denied posting the threats online.
In an announcement on X, Governor Brian Kemp said that he is “heartbroken” along with his family and that he will keep “all resources available to help this community on this incredibly difficult day and in the days to come.”
One of the people who was shot and sent to the hospital was Katie Phenix, a woman who shared on Facebook that her father, David Phenix. She stated he was shot in the hip and foot, that he had a shattered hip bone, and that after surgery, he was in the hospital stable and conscious.
