14-year-old pupil kills 4 – officers

Folks go away Apalachee Excessive College, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Winder, Georgia. (Related Press Photograph/Mike Stewart)

WINDER, Georgia — A 14-year-old pupil opened fireplace at a Georgia highschool and killed 4 individuals on Wednesday, authorities stated.

The incident despatched college students scrambling for shelter of their school rooms – and ultimately to the soccer stadium – as officers swarmed the campus and fogeys raced to search out out if their kids had been protected.

The lifeless had been recognized as two college students and two academics at Apalachee Excessive College in Winder, about an hour’s drive from Atlanta. No less than 9 different individuals had been taken to hospitals with accidents.

The phrases “exhausting lockdown” appeared on a display in junior Layla Ferrell’s well being class and lights started flashing. She and her frightened classmates piled desks and chairs in entrance of the door to create a barricade, she recalled.

Sophomore Kaylee Abner was in geometry class when she heard the gunshots. She and her classmates ducked behind their trainer’s desk, after which the trainer started flipping the desk in an try and barricade the classroom door, Abner stated. A classmate beside her was praying, and she or he held his hand whereas all of them waited for the police.

Article continues after this commercial

READ: 3 minors wounded in Finland faculty taking pictures, baby suspect caught

Article continues after this commercial

After college students poured into the soccer stadium, Abner noticed academics who had taken off their shirts to assist deal with gunshot wounds.

Two faculty useful resource officers encountered the shooter inside minutes after a report of pictures fired went out, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey stated. The suspect, a pupil on the faculty, instantly surrendered and was taken into custody. He’s being charged as an grownup with homicide.

Authorities had been nonetheless trying into how the suspect obtained the gun used within the taking pictures and bought it into the college in Barrow County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. At a day information convention, officers wouldn’t say what sort of gun was used.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith choked up as he started to talk in the course of the briefing. He stated he was born and raised in the neighborhood and his children are within the faculty system.

“My coronary heart hurts for these children. My coronary heart hurts for our neighborhood,” he stated. “However I wish to make it very clear that hate is not going to prevail on this county. I need that to be very clear and recognized. Love will prevail over what occurred at the moment.”

It was the the most recent amongst dozens of college shootings throughout the USA lately, together with particularly lethal ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have set off fervent debates about gun management and frayed the nerves of fogeys whose kids are rising up accustomed to lively shooter drills in school rooms. However they’ve completed little to maneuver the needle on nationwide gun legal guidelines.

Earlier than Wednesday, there had been 29 mass killings in the USA up to now this 12 months, in accordance with a database maintained by The Related Press and USA At present in partnership with Northeastern College. No less than 127 individuals have died in these killings, that are outlined as incidents by which 4 or extra individuals die inside a 24-hour interval, not together with the killer — the identical definition utilized by the FBI.

Final 12 months ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings, making 2023 one of many deadliest years on report for such shootings within the nation.

On Wednesday in Georgia, sophomore soccer participant Jacob King stated he had dozed off in his world historical past class after a morning apply when he heard about 10 gunshots.

King stated he didn’t imagine the taking pictures was actual till he heard an officer yelling at somebody to place down their gun. When his class was led out, he noticed officers shielding what seemed to be an injured pupil.

Ashley Enoh was at house within the morning when she bought a textual content from her brother, a senior at Apalachee Excessive: “Simply so you realize, I really like you.”

When Erin Clark, 42, acquired a textual content from her son Ethan, a senior, saying there was an lively shooter, she rushed from her job on the Amazon warehouse to the college. The 2 texted “I really like you,” and Clark stated she prayed for her him as she drove.

A medical helicopter is seen in entrance of Apalachee Excessive College after a taking pictures on the faculty Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Winder, Georgia. (Related Press Photograph/Mike Stewart)

With the primary highway to the college blocked, she parked and ran with different dad and mom. They had been directed to the soccer area, and amid the chaos, Clark discovered Ethan sitting on the bleachers.

Clark stated her son was writing an essay at school when he first heard gunfire. He labored along with his classmates to barricade the door and conceal.

“I’m so happy with him for doing that,” she stated. “He was so courageous.”

“It makes me scared to ship him again,” Clark stated. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Visitors going to the college was backed up for greater than a mile as dad and mom tried to get to their kids. Barrow County faculties will likely be closed for the remainder of the week as they cooperate with the investigation, however grief counseling will likely be obtainable.

“It’s simply outrageous that every single day, in our nation, in the USA of America, that oldsters should ship their kids to highschool nervous about whether or not or not their baby will come house alive,” Vice President Kamala Harris stated throughout a marketing campaign cease in New Hampshire.

In a message posted to social media, former President Donald Trump stated: “These cherished kids had been taken from us far too quickly by a sick and deranged monster.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp stated in an announcement: “It is a day each mother or father dreads, and Georgians in every single place will hug their kids tighter this night due to this painful occasion.”

The FBI’s Atlanta workplace stated its brokers had been on the faculty “coordinating with and supporting native legislation enforcement.”

READ: Minutes earlier than Texas faculty taking pictures, gunman despatched on-line warning

Apalachee Excessive College has about 1,900 college students, in accordance with data from Georgia schooling officers. It opened in 2000, and is known as after the Apalachee River on the southern fringe of Barrow County, in accordance with the college system.

The taking pictures had reverberations in Atlanta, the place Mayor Andre Dickens stated patrols of colleges had been beefed up.

In Winder, Abner stated that when she goes house Wednesday evening, she hopes to keep away from eager about these terrifying moments in her geometry class.

“I’ll in all probability not give it some thought, though it occurred,” she stated. “Simply assume comfortable ideas, don’t give it some thought anymore.”

Sophomore Shantal Sanvee, who was in a classroom close to the gunshots, stated “I noticed, like, an entire lot of blood. And it was simply, it was simply horrible.”

“I don’t assume I wish to be right here for like a very long time now,” she added.

As an officer led college students in direction of the stadium, freshman Michelle Moncada was in tears. Folks she knew had been shot, and she or he noticed one pal on the ground who had been grazed by a bullet.

“It doesn’t really feel actual,” Moncada stated.