Four people (two teachers and two students) were killed on Wednesday, September 4, when Colt Gray, a 14-year-old teenager, fired an assault rifle into the high school where he attended in Winder, Georgia, in the southeastern United States.
A new tragedy that is saddening America. A 14-year-old teenager was arrested this Wednesday, September 4 after killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School, in Winder, in the state of Georgia, in the southeast of the United States. Eight other teenagers and another teacher were injured in this shooting, the latest in a sad series that has struck schools in the United States for decades.
• At least 4 dead and 9 injured
Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student, opened fire with an assault rifle at Apalachee High School on Wednesday morning, September 4. Two math teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, were killed.
The school was quickly put on lockdown. The injured were treated on site by emergency workers. The students were then evacuated and gathered on the site of a football field, according to other aerial images broadcast by media.
Eight students and a teacher were also injured and taken to hospitals in the Atlanta area. As of late Wednesday, their injuries were not life-threatening.
• The 14-year-old suspect arrested
Called to the scene around 10:20 a.m., the police quickly arrived on the scene. And an officer who was assigned to the high school confronted the shooter. “He quickly realized that if he didn’t surrender,” the officer was going to open fire, said Jud Smith, the local sheriff. “He gave up, got on the ground and the officer arrested him,” he added.
“The shooter has been arrested,” confirmed Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia State Bureau of Investigation. “He is a 14-year-old student at that high school.”
The young suspect “will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.” While he has already spoken to investigators, “we are not aware of any targets” that the teenager may have targeted, “at this time,” Chris Hosey said.
The FBI said Colt Gray was previously interviewed “in May 2023” by law enforcement about “multiple anonymous tips regarding threats to commit a school shooting.” Gray, who was 13 at the time, denied making the threats and “there was insufficient cause to make an arrest,” a statement released Wednesday said.
• Biden, Trump and Harris react
Very quickly, American President Joe Biden reacted. “We cannot accept that this becomes the norm,” declared the White House tenant who has tried for years, without success, to further regulate access to firearms.
“We must end this epidemic of gun violence in our country, once and for all,” said Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Her 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.
The United States is the only country in the world to be relentlessly mourned 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 in their school in Uvalde, Texas, committed by an 18-year-old man using a legally purchased assault rifle.
