A shooting broke out on Wednesday, September 4 at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Four people were killed and nine others were injured by Colt Gray, a 14-year-old boy who was a student at the school located a few dozen kilometers from Atlanta.
This high school, which has welcomed just under 2,000 students every day since the beginning of August, will remain closed until the weekend.
The shooter “gave up, got on the ground and the officer arrested him”
It was around 10:20 a.m. when Barrow County police received emergency calls reporting a shooting at the facility, Sheriff Jud Smith said at a news conference.
“Within minutes, law enforcement arrived on scene, along with an officer assigned to the high school who immediately confronted [le tireur]” he said.
Colt Gray, “recognized quickly that if he didn’t surrender,” the officer was going to open fire, Smith said. “He gave up, got on the ground, and the officer arrested him,” he said.
“It’s scary to know it could have been you.”
But within minutes, the gunman, armed with an automatic rifle, killed two math teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.. And spreads chaos and fear throughout the establishment.
“I was in my classroom and we heard loud bangs, like gunshots, in the hallway,” said Stephanie Folgar, a 17-year-old student.
“My teacher told us to go to the bathroom or a closet and we hid. Some of them were panicking, they felt like they were going to pass out,” she recalls. “It could have been anyone getting shot. There were four people killed. It’s scary to know that it could have been you.”
Sergio Caldera, 17, also heard gunshots and barricaded himself inside a room whose door was locked by a teacher. The student claims that moments later, someone pounded on the door, before shots and screams were heard.
“Just so you know, I love you”
As police moved toward Apalachee High School in droves, students trapped inside the school reached out to their parents and family members. “School shooting now, I’m scared. I love you,” teenager Ethan Haney wrote to his mother at 10:23 a.m., according to a transcript of their text messages published by CNN.
“My brother wrote to me, ‘Just so you know, I love you,'” Ashley Enor, the older sister of a student at the school, told the Associated Press.
The teens were reunited with their loved ones a few dozen minutes later, after the buildings were evacuated to the high school football field. Some injured people were also treated at the scene by emergency workers, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. “Everybody was crying,” Kyson Stancion, who was in a classroom at the time of the shooting, recalled to ABC News.
When the first shots were heard in the hallways, many students thought it was a drill, given how common school shootings are in the United States. Police officers then arrived “and told us it wasn’t a drill,” said high school student Alexandra Romero. “I never thought it would happen in a high school like mine.”
Colt Gray, 14, to be tried as an adult
The shooter, Colt Gray, “will be charged with murder and tried as an adult,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia State Bureau of Investigation.
One of his classmates, Lyela Sayarath, told CNN that Colt Gray was “quiet” and “shy.” The 16-year-old high school student saw the teenager leave her classroom around 9:45 a.m., before returning armed a few minutes later.
Colt Gray failed to open the door, which was automatically locked, and went to another classroom and opened fire. One of Lyela Sayarath’s friends was in that classroom. “He saw someone being shot, he had blood on him … he looked horrified,” she testified.
Although he has already spoken to investigators, “we are not aware of any targets” that the teenager may have targeted “at this time,” explained Sheriff Jud Smith.
Shortly before the shooting, the school received a call warning that shootings were coming to five schools in Georgia, and that the Winder school would be the first. The call, whose origin has not been determined, is of great interest to investigators.
After the shooting, authorities said “reports of additional shootings at nearby schools are false.” Additionally, Kolten Gray, another student whose name circulated on social media Wednesday, was not involved, the Georgia State Bureau of Investigation said.
- BFMTV.com
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