At least four people were killed and nine injured Wednesday after shootings at a high school in the southeastern United States, authorities said, and a suspect has been arrested.
“Four dead. Nine people were sent to various hospitals with injuries,” the Georgia State Bureau of Investigation said on the social network X.
“The suspect is in custody and alive,” he added. CNN and ABC News reported that the suspect is a 14-year-old boy. Authorities have not said a motive.
Multiple emergency vehicles and a large police force were dispatched to Apalachee High School in the town of Winder, about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta.
The shooting is the latest in a sad series of attacks that have been hitting schools in the United States for decades – a phenomenon unlike any other in the world.
“We cannot allow this to become the norm,” said President Joe Biden in a statement, as he has tried unsuccessfully for years to better regulate access to firearms.
“We must end this epidemic of gun violence in our country, once and for all,” Vice President Kamala Harris said. “There is no reason to suffer this,” the Democratic presidential candidate added during a campaign speech.
His opponent, Republican Donald Trump, denounced the actions of the shooter, calling him a “sick and deranged monster.”
The state of Georgia, where the shooting took place, is one of the key states that could decide the election in November.
– Confinement and screams –
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that at 10:23 a.m., a student texted his mother: “I think there’s a shooting.” A few minutes later, the Georgia daily writes, he texted her back: “I love you.”
The school in the greater Atlanta suburbs, surrounded by greenery, was quickly placed under lockdown.
Injured people were treated at the scene by emergency workers, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. Students were later evacuated from the school, or gathered at a sports field site, according to other aerial images released by media outlets.
“My teacher opened the door (to the classroom) to see what was happening. Then another teacher came running and told her to close the door because there was a shooter,” said a 17-year-old student, Sergio Caldera, quoted by ABC.
With the door locked, he and his comrades then took refuge at the back of the room, from where they heard screams ringing out from outside.
The United States is the only country in the world to be so regularly bereaved by school shootings, a scourge fueled by the spread of individual weapons.
In May 2022, 19 children and two teachers were victims of a horrific massacre at their school in Uvalde, Texas, committed by an 18-year-old man using a legally purchased assault rifle.
The number of victims must now be particularly high or the circumstances particularly striking for shootings to generate national media interest.
bur-seb-cjc-ube/rle
