The suspect, a 14-year-old student at the school, and his father were questioned by law enforcement last year regarding “anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting,” according to FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest.
The gun used in Wednesday’s shooting was an AR-platform weapon, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation director. A law enforcement official told CNN earlier it was an AR-15-style rifle.
The adults killed were both math teachers, and Aspinwall was also an assistant football coach, according to the school’s website.
Nine other people — eight students and one teacher — were wounded and hospitalized, all of whom are expected to survive.
Suspected shooter
The suspected gunman has been identified as Colt Gray.
Gray will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.
Gray was questioned by law enforcement last year regarding “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time,” according to FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest.
Law enforcement officials arrive to give a news conference outside of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4.
Christian Monterrosa/AFP/Getty Images
Timeline of the shooting
Student Lyela Sayarath said the suspected shooter left the classroom at the beginning of their Algebra 1 class around 9:45 a.m. When he returned near the end of the class, he knocked to get back in. Another student went to open the door, but Lyela said that student noticed the gun and didn’t open the door. She said the shooter went to the classroom next door and opened fire.
Law enforcement arrived shortly after those calls, in addition to two school resources officers assigned to Apalachee High.
A resource officer confronted the shooter, who immediately surrendered to the deputy and was taken into custody, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told reporters.
When the shooting happened, all schools in the district were placed in lockdown, and police were sent out of an abundance of caution to all district high schools.
The FBI and the ATF were later on the scene working with local and state officials, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
The investigation
There were no reports of secondary incidents or scenes, law enforcement sources told CNN.
The gun used in Wednesday’s shooting was an AR-platform weapon, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation director. A law enforcement official told CNN earlier it was an AR-15-style rifle.
Apalachee High School had received a phone threat earlier in the morning warning that there would be shootings at five schools and that Apalachee would be the first, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.
GBI Director Chris Hosey said there’s no evidence of other schools being targeted, but investigators are pursuing “any leads of any potential associates of the shooter that was involved in this incident.” At this point, there’s no evidence that any additional shooter was involved, and no evidence of a list of schools being targeted, Hosey said.
Schools in the county will be closed for the week while the investigation plays out.
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What we know about the 4 people killed in the Georgia school shooting
From CNN staff
(Left to right) Richard Aspinwall, Christina Irimie, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo were all victims in the Apalachee High School shooting on September 4.
Apalachee High School/Family Photo/GoFundMe
Four people were killed in a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday morning.
They have been identified as:
Mason Schermerhorn, a 14-year-old student
Christian Angulo, a 14-year-old student
Richard Aspinwall, a teacher
Christina Irimie, a teacher
The school’s website shows the two adults were both math teachers, and Aspinwall was also an assistant football coach.
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Water, sports drinks and granola bars: How neighbors offered help after Georgia school shooting
From CNN’s Michelle Krupa in Winder
When they didn’t know what else to do, they set up a table with Goldfish crackers and two kinds of blue Gatorade.
Chris Comfort had heard the sirens rushing after 10 a.m. local time toward Apalachee High School and the middle school and preschool just beside it. Then, the news started to trickle out – on text chains, local news, CNN – about gunshots at the high school, kids in lockdown. Helicopters soon swirled overhead.
By noon, ordinary cars and trucks and SUVs had started lining up on Haymon Morris Road, the one main artery to and from the campus. But they moved at a crawl, brake lights bright red.
Some turned onto Comfort’s side street, then parked two cars deep. Others, unwilling to face the gridlock, started passing by on foot – trudging a mile, often more, under a beating sun in hopes of confirming their worst fear wasn’t real.
By midafternoon, neighbors had “been bringing waters and snacks for hours.”
They had water, sports drinks, granola bars, applesauce packs, cheese and peanut butter crackers, gummies and cold cubed watermelon.
They worked in shifts to hand it out mostly to the walkers but also to drivers who crept by on the road.
One neighbor, only identified as Chris, was with her 15-year-old daughter, Geaux, a homeschooled 10th grader who hangs out with lots of kids from the neighborhood, sports and church who go to Apalachee High.
Some of those kids walked with their parents back past the snack table.
“It’s afternoon, and they haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Chris said of many.
“There were some kids who hadn’t eaten since last night because they didn’t have time for breakfast this morning. They were on their way to school,” Geaux said.
“It’s hot,” the teenager added. “And it’s scary.”
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Hospitalized victims are expected to survive, sheriff says
From CNN's Tori B. Powell
All of the hospitalized victims of today’s shooting are expected to survive and are “going to recover well,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Wednesday night at a news conference.
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Authorities still investigating how suspect got the weapon into school, official says
From CNN's Nouran Salahieh
Authorities still are investigating how the suspect brought into the school the “AR-platform style weapon” that was used in the shooting, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said in a news conference Wednesday night.
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Suspect will be booked tonight, GBI director says
From CNN's Amir Vera
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said Colt Gray, 14, the student accused in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School, will be booked in jail tonight.
Hosey said he was not sure when Colt would make his first court appearance, but said it would be “in a reasonable amount of time.”
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GBI director calls school faculty, shooting victims and law enforcement personnel "heroes"
From CNN's Tori B. Powell
Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, highlighted those who he referred to as “heroes” of the tragic day at Apalachee High School, where four people were killed Wednesday.
Hosey called law enforcement personnel and the shooting victims heroes as well.
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GBI director identifies 4 victims
From CNN's Amir Vera
Chris Hosey speaks during a press conference on September 4.
CNN
Chris Hosey, Georgia Bureau of Investigation director, identified the four people killed in Wednesday’s mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.
The victims were identified as:
Mason Schermerhorn, 14, student
Christian Angulo, 14, student
Richard Aspinwall, teacher
Christina Irimie, teacher
Aspinwall and Irimie were math teachers at Apalachee, according to the school’s website, which also lists Aspinwall as the defensive coordinator of the school’s football team.
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Georgia governor thanks officials for response to shooting
From CNN's Tori B. Powell
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks to a reporter in the CNN Spin Room in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/File
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp thanked first responders and other officials who responded to the scene after four people were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School on Wednesday.
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GBI says no evidence of other schools being targeted
From CNN's Nouran Salahieh
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said there’s no evidence of other schools being targeted, but investigators are pursuing “any leads of any potential associates of the shooter that was involved in this incident.”
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Teen who missed school Wednesday shares how she found out her friend died in shooting
From CNN's Ryan Young, Jade Gordon and Mike Reff
A teen who missed school at Apalachee High School Wednesday found out her friend died through a group chat, she told CNN’s Ryan Young.
Kathrine Maldonado overslept Wednesday and missed school, she said. After she woke up later that morning, her friend texted her saying the school was in a lockdown.
Kathrine’s friend said she was OK and then started texting group chats, where they found out that a friend was killed and at least two more were injured.
Kathrine said her friend that died in the shooting was known as a class clown and described him as a “sweet person.”
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Law enforcement questioned the suspect last year about "threats to commit a school shooting"
From CNN’s Devon Sayers
Law enforcement and first responders respond to the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4.
Christian Monterrosa/AFP/Getty Images
The 14-year-old student suspected of killing two students and two teachers at the Apalachee High School was questioned by law enforcement last year regarding “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time,” according to a joint statement from FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
The online threats included photographs of guns, according to the statement.
The suspect and his father were then interviewed by the county sheriff’s office.
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When gunfire exploded at a school in his town, one youth pastor's mind turned to mercy
From CNN's Michelle Krupa in Winder, Georgia
The evening’s focus was supposed to be greed versus generosity.
On Wednesday nights at Winder First Baptist Church — just like on Wednesday nights at other Baptist, United Methodist, Episcopal and Christian churches all across America — the faithful gather for Bible study and youth group and to break bread and just be together.
But on this Wednesday night in Winder, Georgia, the staff at Winder First Baptist Church had to pivot and reframe the message to one perhaps more simple but also more direct: “Instead of hate,” the youth pastor said, “we’re going to love.”
It hadn’t been 10 hours since two students and two teachers were killed and nine others hospitalized after a shooter opened fire at Apalachee High School, just 8 miles from the church.
The youth pastor, Mitch Norman, goes into the office later on Wednesdays — because of the evening’s obligations. He’d been at Bethlehem Christian Academy, where his wife is a teacher when he saw all the squad cars race toward Apalachee High.
Since then, “it’s just not stopped,” he said. “Everywhere you go that’s what everybody is thinking about.”
So as the parking lot filled up Wednesday night, Norman got ready for a prayer service. Instead of the regular schedule where kids are separate from the grown-ups, they’d all be together tonight.
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Weapon used in the Georgia school shooting was an AR-15 style rifle, law enforcement official says
From CNN's Mark Morales
The weapon used in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School was an AR-15 style rifle, a law enforcement official told CNN.
The official did not provide any information on how investigators believe the suspect obtained the weapon or any other details on the weapon and ammunition used.
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Apalachee student was praying while hearing "people begging not to get shot"
From CNN’s Zenebou Sylla
Not long after Dr. Anetra Pattman said goodbye to her 14-year-old daughter Macey Right as she headed for school, she received a text: “Mom, I’m scared. I hear gunshots. Please come get me.”
Pattman — a teacher at an alternative school in Barrow County, about 5 miles from Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia — immediately showed the messages to her own school principal.
Pattman, an educator for about 22 years, had practiced active shooter drills for about 10 years.
“I knew she couldn’t call me, I knew that I couldn’t get her, I knew all of those things, and so I simply just tried to assure her that she was ok, that her teachers would make sure she was ok,” Pattman said.
Meanwhile Macey and a group of girls held hands together to pray. Moments later, they were disrupted by banging and yelling, according to Macey.
“I heard gunshots outside my classroom and people screaming, people begging not to get shot, and then people sitting beside me just shaking and crying,” Macey said.
Schools in the county will be closed for the rest of the week while an investigation into the incident plays out, according to school district officials. Macey said she is worried about returning to school.
CNN’s Taylor Galgano contributed reporting.
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Georgia authorities schedule another news conference for tonight with updates on the shooting
From CNN's Isabel Rosales
A news conference with updates on the Apalachee High School shooting will be held at 9 p.m. ET, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a post on X.
The GBI didn’t indicate who would be taking part in the news conference.
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Watch Apalachee High School students describe the deadly shooting
From CNN's Abby Washer
Apalachee High School students explain to CNN what happened when shots rang out this morning in Georgia, killing two teachers and two students and injuring several others.
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Student huddled with classmates during shooting as their teacher stood over them, student's mother says
From CNN's Alli Gordon
Shana McMillan, a teacher at a Head Start program in Gainesville, Georgia, heard her daughter’s school was under lockdown and ran out the door. She described her journey “as the longest ride … to get to my baby.”
Although she did not see the shooting, McMillan’s daughter heard the gunshots and saw blood on the floor when they were told to evacuate the school, her mother said. Her daughter’s teacher told them to get in the corner and stood over them to “protect them just in case the shooter came in the room,” McMillan said.
Her daughter was across from the classroom where one of the teachers was killed, McMillan said, and the students from across the hall came into her daughter’s classroom crying.
As her daughter huddled with her classmates, McMillan was receiving texts terrifying to any parent.
When they were finally reunited, McMillan said she just hugged her daughter real tight.
“This is really scary… As a mom and a teacher, I can only imagine,” she said.
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Apalachee High School students describe harrowing moments as shooting happened today
From CNN's Ryan Young
Jayden Finch speaks to CNN in an interview on September 4.
CNN
Apalachee High School students say they are still processing today’s tragedy, when a 14-year-old allegedly opened fire and killed four people.
Jayden said he was in a classroom near where the shooting happened. He said his class was having presentations when a lockdown notification appeared on a television in his classroom.
“It was just straight silence and then you just hear gunshots and everyone just runs to the corner,” Jayden said.
Zyrianna Finch recalled how her teacher had left her classroom to get papers from a printer in a different room and that another teacher was supervising the class.
She and her classmates were directed to go into a closet while “really loud shots” rang out, Zyrianna said.
Nicholas Criswell also described the noise of the gunshots. He said the sound was similar to a person “just banging on the door.”
Nicholas said his teachers were “a little bit panicked,” but got them into a corner and followed the procedures of a drill.
He recalled hearing “scuffling feet and things like that, and then shouting” before police evacuated students out of the building.
