WINDER — A 14-year-old student rampaged through the hallways of his Georgia high school Wednesday, killing two students and two teachers before giving up his gun and surrendering, according to authorities.
It was the deadliest school shooting of 2024 and a grim reminder, as students returned from their summer breaks, of America’s crescendo of school violence in recent years.
Law enforcement officers who converged on the rural campus of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, an hour’s drive outside Atlanta, identified the shooter as Colt Gray and said he would be charged with murder, and as an adult.
Students at the school had gone through active shooter drills in recent years. And teachers and employees had key cards that could initiate a lockdown if they spotted a potential threat. But it was not enough to prevent the deadliest school shooting in Georgia's history.
At least nine people were hospitalised with injuries, authorities said, and at least one was flown by helicopter to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, one of the major trauma centres in the region.
Mourners during a vigil for the victims of a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. (Photo: New York Times)
The attack sent panicked parents scrambling to find their children at the campus, which has around 1,800 students. Several other schools in the area were under lockdown.
Officials in Barrow County, Georgia, said they received the first call about the shooting around 10.20am.
Lyela Sayarath, a 16-year-old student, told CNN that she was in algebra class with the shooter. She said the boy had left the classroom, and then knocked to be let back in, but the door had automatically locked behind him.
Another student went to let him in, but then jumped backward. She backed away and left the door shut, Lyela said.
Lyela said she believed the boy had meant to shoot inside their room. When he was not let back inside, she heard the shots, "about 10 to 15 rounds back to back," she told CNN.
Other witnesses said they heard multiple rounds of gunshots as the shooter stalked the hallways, prompting terrified students to huddle in their own classrooms, to barricade themselves in the nurse’s office and ultimately to dash to the safety of the football field.
Christian Scott, an 11th grader, said he was walking to see a school nurse when he heard gunshots and "suddenly I was under lockdown."
He said the nurse's office was barricaded by beds.
It was "living hell" from when the shooting started to when he was finally reunited with his sister, also a student, and his friends at the school football field, Christian said.
A woman holds up signs following a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters)
Another student, Jose Inciarte, said he assumed it was a drill when the lockdown warning flashed in his Spanish classroom. But then he heard "running and screaming," he recalled a few hours later.
Stephen Kreyenbuhl, a world history teacher at the school, said teachers and employees all had a key card that could start a lockdown. At around the same time he heard at least 10 shots ring out nearby, a lockdown alert flashed on a screen in his classroom.
Kreyenbuhl, 26, said that a teacher next door came out of his classroom and was shot.
Laniel Arteta, a freshman at the school, said he was in a technology class when he heard shots. He and the other students huddled in a corner of the classroom, hands over their heads.
Laniel said that he heard screams, and the teacher told the students to be quiet. They waited for more than an hour until they were shepherded out of the building. By that point, the school was full of police, Laniel said. He also saw loose shoes everywhere.
Sheriff Jud Smith of Barrow County, which includes Winder, said the shooter surrendered after a school resource officer "engaged" him.
"He gave up, got on the ground, and the deputy took him into custody," the sheriff said.
The streets surrounding the school were clogged Wednesday with law enforcement officers and emergency responders. Parents, some parking more than 1 mile away, walked toward the school, searching for their children. Hundreds of evacuated students were waiting on the football field.
Barrow County schools will be closed the rest of the week, the superintendent said at the news conference.
Information about victims of the shooting began to trickle out Wednesday afternoon.
A social media post by Katie Phenix, whose Facebook profile lists her as an admissions adviser at Emory University, said her father, David Phenix, a coach and teacher at Apalachee, had been shot and injured.
"There was a shooting this morning at Apalachee High School and my dad was shot in the foot and in the hip, shattering his hip bone," Katie Phenix wrote. "He arrived to the hospital alert and awake. He just got out of surgery and is stable."
People light candles while attending a vigil at Jug Tavern Park following a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters)
Wednesday's attack was the 23rd school shooting this year that has resulted in injuries or deaths, according to a tally by Education Week. The publication counted 38 school shootings with injuries or deaths in 2023, 51 in 2022 and 35 in 2021.
It said that there were 10 such attacks in 2020, when many students were learning remotely at home. Before the pandemic, the tallies were 24 each in 2019 and 2018.
Wednesday's shooting immediately prompted calls from Democrats for gun control legislation. President Joe Biden issued a statement decrying "more senseless gun violence."
"Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write," the statement said. "We cannot continue to accept this as normal."
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, called the Georgia shooting "outrageous."
"It's just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive," she said.
Former President Donald Trump offered his condolences in a statement. "Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, Ga.," he wrote on Truth Social. "These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster."
Near the school Wednesday afternoon, a woman stood on the side of the road with a hand-drawn sign. It read: "Our schools shouldn't be cemeteries."
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
It was the deadliest school shooting of 2024 and a grim reminder, as students returned from their summer breaks, of America’s crescendo of school violence in recent years.
Law enforcement officers who converged on the rural campus of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, an hour’s drive outside Atlanta, identified the shooter as Colt Gray and said he would be charged with murder, and as an adult.
Students at the school had gone through active shooter drills in recent years. And teachers and employees had key cards that could initiate a lockdown if they spotted a potential threat. But it was not enough to prevent the deadliest school shooting in Georgia's history.
At least nine people were hospitalised with injuries, authorities said, and at least one was flown by helicopter to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, one of the major trauma centres in the region.
Mourners during a vigil for the victims of a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. (Photo: New York Times)
The attack sent panicked parents scrambling to find their children at the campus, which has around 1,800 students. Several other schools in the area were under lockdown.
Officials in Barrow County, Georgia, said they received the first call about the shooting around 10.20am.
Lyela Sayarath, a 16-year-old student, told CNN that she was in algebra class with the shooter. She said the boy had left the classroom, and then knocked to be let back in, but the door had automatically locked behind him.
Another student went to let him in, but then jumped backward. She backed away and left the door shut, Lyela said.
Lyela said she believed the boy had meant to shoot inside their room. When he was not let back inside, she heard the shots, "about 10 to 15 rounds back to back," she told CNN.
Other witnesses said they heard multiple rounds of gunshots as the shooter stalked the hallways, prompting terrified students to huddle in their own classrooms, to barricade themselves in the nurse’s office and ultimately to dash to the safety of the football field.
Christian Scott, an 11th grader, said he was walking to see a school nurse when he heard gunshots and "suddenly I was under lockdown."
He said the nurse's office was barricaded by beds.
It was "living hell" from when the shooting started to when he was finally reunited with his sister, also a student, and his friends at the school football field, Christian said.
A woman holds up signs following a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters)
Another student, Jose Inciarte, said he assumed it was a drill when the lockdown warning flashed in his Spanish classroom. But then he heard "running and screaming," he recalled a few hours later.
Stephen Kreyenbuhl, a world history teacher at the school, said teachers and employees all had a key card that could start a lockdown. At around the same time he heard at least 10 shots ring out nearby, a lockdown alert flashed on a screen in his classroom.
Kreyenbuhl, 26, said that a teacher next door came out of his classroom and was shot.
Laniel Arteta, a freshman at the school, said he was in a technology class when he heard shots. He and the other students huddled in a corner of the classroom, hands over their heads.
Laniel said that he heard screams, and the teacher told the students to be quiet. They waited for more than an hour until they were shepherded out of the building. By that point, the school was full of police, Laniel said. He also saw loose shoes everywhere.
Sheriff Jud Smith of Barrow County, which includes Winder, said the shooter surrendered after a school resource officer "engaged" him.
"He gave up, got on the ground, and the deputy took him into custody," the sheriff said.
The streets surrounding the school were clogged Wednesday with law enforcement officers and emergency responders. Parents, some parking more than 1 mile away, walked toward the school, searching for their children. Hundreds of evacuated students were waiting on the football field.
Barrow County schools will be closed the rest of the week, the superintendent said at the news conference.
Information about victims of the shooting began to trickle out Wednesday afternoon.
A social media post by Katie Phenix, whose Facebook profile lists her as an admissions adviser at Emory University, said her father, David Phenix, a coach and teacher at Apalachee, had been shot and injured.
"There was a shooting this morning at Apalachee High School and my dad was shot in the foot and in the hip, shattering his hip bone," Katie Phenix wrote. "He arrived to the hospital alert and awake. He just got out of surgery and is stable."
People light candles while attending a vigil at Jug Tavern Park following a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday. (Photo: Reuters)
Wednesday's attack was the 23rd school shooting this year that has resulted in injuries or deaths, according to a tally by Education Week. The publication counted 38 school shootings with injuries or deaths in 2023, 51 in 2022 and 35 in 2021.
It said that there were 10 such attacks in 2020, when many students were learning remotely at home. Before the pandemic, the tallies were 24 each in 2019 and 2018.
Wednesday's shooting immediately prompted calls from Democrats for gun control legislation. President Joe Biden issued a statement decrying "more senseless gun violence."
"Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write," the statement said. "We cannot continue to accept this as normal."
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, called the Georgia shooting "outrageous."
"It's just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive," she said.
Former President Donald Trump offered his condolences in a statement. "Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, Ga.," he wrote on Truth Social. "These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster."
Near the school Wednesday afternoon, a woman stood on the side of the road with a hand-drawn sign. It read: "Our schools shouldn't be cemeteries."
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
