What We Know About 14-Year-Old Key Suspect In Georgia's Apalachee High School Deadly Shooting?

Georgia: Two innocent students and two teachers were killed after a 14-year-old student opened fire at a Georgia high school on Wednesday. A lockdown was imposed in Georgia as police officials launched manhunt and tried to control the situation as students, teachers rushed to take shelter in classrooms and later to football stadium. Cops swarmed the campus and parents raced to find out if their children were safe. Apalachee High School opened in 2000 and has about 1,900 students, according to records from Georgia education officials.

Who is 14-year-old shooter, held for carrying out deadly shooting? 

Georgia school shooter has been identified as a student of the same school. It has been revealed that he was interviewed by the sheriff's department in Jackson County in May 2023. He was identified by two school resource officers within minutes after a report of shots fired went out.

The suspect immediately surrendered and is being charged as an adult with murder. Authorities said the weapon was an assault-style rifle.

Teen shooter was in FBI records 

The teen had been interviewed after the FBI received anonymous tips in May 2023 about online threats to commit an unspecified school shooting, the agency said in a statement.

The FBI narrowed the threats down and referred to the case to the sheriff’s department in Jackson County, which is adjacent to Barrow County.

The sheriff’s office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting guns in the house but the teen did not have unsupervised access to them. The teen also denied making any online threats.

The sheriff’s office alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the teen, but there was no probable cause for arrest to additional action, the FBI said.

Police probing how teen got gun access

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said the state Division of Family and Children’s Services also had previous contact with the teen and will investigate whether that has any connection with the shooting.

Authorities were still looking into how the suspect obtained the gun used in the shooting and got it into the school in Barrow County, a rapidly suburbanizing area on the edge of metro Atlanta’s ever-expanding sprawl.

At an afternoon news conference, Smith choked up as he began to speak. He said he was born and raised in the community and his kids are in the school system.

“My heart hurts for these kids. My heart hurts for our community,” he said. “But I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county. I want that to be very clear and known. Love will prevail over what happened today.”

Two students, two teachers killed in Georgia shooting 

The dead were identified as two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder. 

The victims were two other 14-year-olds, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and instructors Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, Chris Hosey said in a nighttime news conference.

At least nine other people — eight students and one teacher — were taken to hospitals with injuries. All were expected to survive, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.

Moments of panic during Georgia shooting 

The words “hard lockdown” appeared on a screen in junior Layla Ferrell’s health class and lights began flashing. She and her frightened classmates piled desks and chairs in front 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 teacher’s desk, and then the teacher began flipping the desk in an attempt to barricade the classroom door, Abner said. A classmate beside her was praying, and she held his hand while they all waited for police.

After students poured into the football stadium, Abner saw teachers who had taken off their shirts to help treat gunshot wounds.

School shootings in United States 

It was the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas.

The classroom killings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to active shooter drills in classrooms. But they have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.

Before Wednesday, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

Last year ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings, making 2023 one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country.