Four people were confirmed dead and multiple others injured in a shooting on Wednesday morning at a high school in Georgia. Authorities said a suspect was alive and in custody.
Law enforcement officers responded to a report of a shooter at Apalachee high school in Winder, about 50 miles north-east of Atlanta, at 10.23am, the Barrow county sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The Georgia bureau of investigations (GBI) confirmed the number of fatalities in a tweet, and said nine people had been taken to local hospitals.
“Suspect in custody and alive. Reports that the suspect has been ‘neutralized’ are inaccurate,” the post said.
At a lunchtime press conference, the sheriff, Jud Smith, said it was still a “very fluid investigation”.
“What you see behind us is an evil thing,” he said. “This is going to take multiple days for us to get answers as to what happened and why this happened.”
Media outlets including CNN, citing anonymous law enforcement sources at the scene, reported about 30 injuries. It was unclear how many of the injuries were gunshot wounds.
The sheriff confirmed a suspect was in custody, but he did not identify the person or their age. One source said the suspect was believed to be a 14-year-old male, CNN reported, but it was unknown if he was a student at Apalachee.
Video on local TV stations showed at least two people airlifted to local hospitals by helicopter. A spokesperson for the Grady Health System in Atlanta said it received one gunshot victim.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were being kept informed of developments, said the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, at an afternoon briefing.
“Children across the country are heading back to school for the new school year. Today is supposed to be an exciting day for students and parents, but instead we’re seeing yet another horrific shooting,” she said.
“Our hearts are with those families in Winder, Georgia, who are forced to face this act of senseless violence.
“As the president has said time and again, this is not normal. Students and teachers deserve to know that their schools are safe. We continue to call on Congress to do something. We need universal background checks. We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, invest in violence prevention programs and pass a national red flag law. Enough is enough.”
Students caught up in the shooting described hearing gunshots and screaming. Senior Sergio Caldera, 17, told ABC News he was in chemistry class when he heard shooting.
“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,” Caldera said.
He said the teacher locked the door and the students ran to the back of the room and huddled together. Someone pounded on his classroom door and shouted “open up!” multiple times, he said, followed by gunshots and screams after the knocking stopped.
Ashley Enoh said she was at home she received a text message from her brother, a senior at Apalachee, a school with about 1,900 students.
“Just so you know, I love you,” the text read.
Students were evacuated to the school’s football field, and later allowed to reunite with their families.
Merrick Garland, the attorney general, said FBI and ATF agents were on the scene, and the justice department “stands ready” to provide the GBI and local authorities any assistance they needed.
“I’m devastated for the families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy,” he said at a press conference at the justice department addressing alleged Russian interference in US elections.
The mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, issued a statement on X. “My prayers are with the high school students, staff, and families affected by the act of violence in Winder, Georgia,” he wrote.
“APD [Atlanta police department] has also been on standby in case other law enforcement agencies need assistance with this incident. May God comfort the victims and their loved ones in the difficult days ahead.”
The initial casualty figures were reported by MSNBC, citing unnamed law enforcement officers briefed on the incident.
The incident appeared to be under control and students were being released at midday, a Barrow county schools spokesperson said.
Live aerial TV images showed several ambulances outside the high school.
CNN said it witnessed a patient being loaded into a medical helicopter that had landed at the school.
The FBI field office in Atlanta dispatched agents to the high school to support local law enforcement, said Jenna Sellitto, a spokeswoman for the office.
The US has seen hundreds of shootings inside schools and colleges in the past two decades. The carnage has sparked pitched debate over lax American gun laws and the US constitution’s second amendment, which enshrines the right “to keep and bear arms”.
The Gun Violence Archive reported there have been 384 mass shootings in the US this year before today’s incident in Georgia. The group considers a mass shooting to be one in which four or more victims are killed, not including the shooter.
Kris Brown, president of the gun control advocacy group Brady, said in a statement that the shooting reinforced the need for more legislation.
“Students across the country are returning to classrooms this week, and already we are witnessing yet another devastating school shooting. There is no world in which this is acceptable, no world in which our children should be forced to run and hide from shooters in school hallways, no world in which loved ones should have to wait (as parents in Winder are) to learn if their child will return home from school alive,” the statement said.
“Thoughts, prayers, and platitudes will never be enough. Gun violence is an all-too American crisis that demands action – and all of us deserve leaders who will finally put the safety of our children and communities above gun industry profits.”
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting
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