Four people were killed and nine were hospitalized after a shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday morning, officials said.
The suspected gunman is in custody and was identified as 14-year-old a student of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, a community about an hour outside of Atlanta.
Law enforcement are still investigating the shooting and motive behind it. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith warned that it could take “multiple days” to get answers.
Two students and two teachers were killed, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. The suspected shooter has been identified as 14-year-old Colt Gray, Hosey said, and he will be charged with murder and will be tried as an adult. Investigators have spoken to the suspected shooter and have been in touch with his family, Smith said. There is no known connection between the suspected shooter and the victims, according to Smith. But Hosey added that the investigation is ongoing.
The timeline:
The sheriff’s department received the first reports of the shooting around 10:20 a.m., according to Hosey.
Law enforcement arrived shortly after those first calls, Hosey said, in addition to two school resources officers who were assigned to Apalachee High.
The resource officers confronted the shooter who “immediately surrendered to these officers and he was taken into custody,” Hosey said.
One student, Lyela Sayarath, said the suspected shooter left the classroom at the beginning of their Algebra 1 class. When the suspect returned near the end of the class, he knocked to get back in. Another student went to open the door, but Lyela said they noticed the gun and didn’t open the door. She said the shooter went to the classroom next door and opened fire.
The FBI and the ATF were on the scene working with local and state officials, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
When the shooting happened, all schools in the district were placed in lockdown, and police were sent out of an abundance of caution to all district high schools. There were no reports of secondary incidents or scenes, law enforcement sources told CNN.
Apalachee High School received a phone threat earlier this morning warning that there would be shootings at five schools and that Apalachee would be the first, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.
Schools in the county will be closed for the rest of the week while the investigation plays out, said Dallas LeDuff, the superintendent of the Barrow County school system.
