14-Year-Old School Shooter Kills Four and Wounds Nine

At least four people are dead and several others wounded after a shooter opened fire at a rural high school in Georgia, authorities said Wednesday.

The shooter was identified as Colt Gray, a 14-year-old Apalachee High School student who launched his attack just before 10:30 a.m. local time, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said at an afternoon news conference.

Gray “immediately surrendered” and was taken into custody alive, GBI Director Chris Hosey said. He will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.

Hosey confirmed that the victims were two students, two teachers. Nine other people were wounded and rushed to area hospitals, he said.

“What you see behind us is an evil thing today,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said at an earlier news conference.

The sheriff said that authorities had not yet established a motive. “We are asking for your patience… Please let us get the facts that we need to make sure we get this right,” he said. “This is going to take multiple days for us to get answers as to what happened and why this happened.”

It was not immediately clear if the gunman was a student at Apalachee, which is in Winder, a city around an hour outside Atlanta. Law enforcement officials in Georgia told the outlet that the high school had received a phone call earlier in the day warning that there would be shootings at five schools in the area—and that Apalachee would be the first.

Officials said they were investigating the call and the unknown caller behind it. The GBI later said that rumors of additional shootings at nearby schools were false.

An Apalachee sophomore, Alexsandra Romero, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that another student had burst into her second-period class, yelling for everyone to get down.

Once she realized it wasn’t a drill, “I can just remember my hands were shaking,” Romero said. “I felt bad because everybody was crying, everybody was trying to find their siblings.”

She said she glimpsed blood and firearms lying on the ground as she was escorted out of the building.

Many students were evacuated to the football field, where parents were allowed to reunite with their children around midday. Erin Clark, who’d received a frantic text from her 17-year-old son after the gunfire broke out, drove to Apalachee “absolutely terrified” and “praying” for his safety, she told CNN.

She eventually found him safe by the bleachers amid what local stations described as a chaotic scene.

None of the victims was immediately named by law enforcement.

David Phenix, a special education teacher and coach at Apalachee High School, was identified as one of the injured 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.”

The fall semester at Apalachee High School began on Aug. 1. The school has roughly 1,800 students across four grades. Winder had a population of around 18,300 as of the 2020 census, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The attack marked the deadliest school shooting in state history, according to The New York Times, which cited data from the Gun Violence Archive.

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In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and First Lady Jill Biden were “mourning the deaths” of those killed, “and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed.

“What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart,” he said. “Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”

At a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris called the shooting an outrage.

“It’s just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America that parents have to send their parents to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive,” she said.

“Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of their classroom. It does not have to be this way.”

After expressing condolences for the victims at an afternoon press conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called on Congress to pass gun-control legislation.

“We need universal background checks,” she said. “We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, invest in prevention programs, and pass a national red flag law.”

Former President Donald Trump called the gunman “a sick and deranged monster” in a short post on Truth Social.

“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” he said. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) wrote on X that his heart was broken “for the families of the victims at Apalachee High School & for every student. The entire Winder community is in my prayers, but we can’t pray only with our lips—we must pray by taking action.”

Rep. Mike Collins (R), who represents the swath of Georgia that includes Winder, said he and his wife were “praying for the victims, their families, and all students at Apalachee High School.

“I have spoken with Sheriff Smith and told him my team and I are available to assist in any way necessary,” he added in a post on X.

Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) said he had directed the Atlanta FBI to support local law enforcement.

“I have directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state,” the governor said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland added that “FBI and ATF are on the scene working with state, local and federal partners,” at “the tragic shooting that occurred this morning.”

“I’m devastated for the families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy. The Justice Department stands ready to provide resources or support the Winder community needs in the days ahead,” he said.