Apalachee High School shooting in Barrow County, Georgia leaves 4 dead, 9 hospitalized, 30 injured, with 14 year old ‘male’ student suspect, id as Colt Gray taken into custody and who will now be tried as an adult. No known motive.
Georgia authorities have told of no less than 4 being shot dead and another 9 hospitalized and 30 injured during a mass school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Wednesday morning, just on 9.30 am.
Arrested was a 14 year old ‘male’ gunman, Colt Gray, since revealed to be a student at the school. A female student attending the school later confirmed (see below) the teen gunman being ‘her classmate’ at the high school, which is about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta.
Identified as the victims were two teachers and two students. It was after gunning down his victims that Colt Gray surrendered to school resource officers according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. To date no known motive for the school shooting was immediately known.
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GEORGIA SCHOOL SHOOTING:
⁃ Apalachee High School in Winder
⁃ 4 dead, 30+ wounded, per CNN
⁃ Suspect in custody
⁃ FBI responding pic.twitter.com/HIomZQ3JjU— Aristotle (@goLoko77) September 4, 2024
🚨Just in: There has been a school shooting in Georgia. Two people have been killed. Two teachers were shot. Also four others were injured after a suspect opens fire at Apalachee High School in Barrow County on Wednesday morning. The suspect is in custody.pic.twitter.com/HA9VZaL8PO
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) September 4, 2024
🚨#BREAKING The shooter in custody IS a student at Apalachee Highschool!
In this clip you can see a student say “He was my classmate”
The shooter tried getting into that classroom when she saw him!
He then went on to other rooms.
We STILL have people talking about a possible… pic.twitter.com/m4NnHdNx8T
— In2ThinAir (@In2ThinAir) September 4, 2024
Apalachee High School shooting suspect id as 14 year old male, Colt Gray
The 14 year old according to the GBI, gave himself up to up to police as soon as they found him inside the school, officials said at a press conference at 4:30pm.
Of note, officials refused to say what weapon Gray used during the mass shooting or how the boy managed to bring the weapon into school.
During an earlier press conference, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said authorities were scrambling to find answers as to what led to the 14 year old teen targeting teachers and students — with officials also cautioning that those answers may not come quickly, CNN reported.
‘We are asking for your patience … please let us get the facts that we need to make sure we get this right,’ Smith said during Wednesday’s news conference. ‘This is going to take multiple days for us to get answers as to what happened and why this happened.’
Smith said that a school resource officer engaged Gray shortly after shots were fired. Gray then got on the ground, surrendered and was taken into custody.
Smith says that Gray realized that if he did not give himself up, he would have been shot.
Officials said Gray has been interviewed by sheriff’s office investigators and the GBI. Smith said his statements are ‘helping our investigation.’ Of note, GBI officials said Gray would be tried as an adult.
Police have been interviewing Gray, and are also in touch with his family. His motivations for the attack remain unclear, as it seemed he had no prior connection to the victims.
‘None that I’m aware of,’ Barrow County Sheriff Smith responded when asked.
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Update- Student’s mom reacts to shooting at Apalachee High school, gives account of what son and other students witnessed including the alleged death of High School Coach pic.twitter.com/DIHTCr2wkn
— SHO’NUFF (@IAMSHO_NUFF) September 4, 2024
Mayhem and chaos
David Phenix, a special education teacher and coach at Apalachee High School, was identified as one of the shooting victims by his daughter, Katie Phenix. She said on Facebook that her father had been ‘shot in the foot and in the hip, shattering his hip bone.’
‘He arrived to the hospital alert and awake,’ she continued. ‘He just got out of surgery and is stable. We will update as we hear new information. We are so, so lucky, but please keep our family as well as the AHS family in your prayers.’
Apalachee senior Sergio Caldera, 17, told ABC News that he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots.
‘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,’ he said.
Caldera’s teacher locked the door and the students ran to the back of the room, he recalled.
He said they heard screams from outside as they huddled together.
At one point, Caldera said, someone banged on the classroom door and yelled ‘open up!’ several times.
When the knocking stopped, Caldera heard more gunshots and screaming.
The shooting came just over a month after Barrow County students returned to classes on Aug. 1.
The district had a four-day weekend for the Labor Day holiday, according to the official calendar.
The high school, which is home to around 1,900 students, is 25 miles west of Athens.
The shooting in Georgia on Wednesday was the deadliest at a school this year, based on data from the Gun Violence Archive. It is also the deadliest school shooting in state history.
