One person is in custody after multiple law enforcement agencies responded Wednesday to a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia , that killed four people and left nine others hospitalized.
Two of those killed in the shooting were students. The other two were teachers.
Georgia officials identified the student victims as Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both of whom were 14. The two adults killed were Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.
The suspect, identified as Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student, has been arrested and charged with murder.
Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, told reporters the suspect surrendered to a school resource officer.
Sources told CNN earlier Wednesday that about 30 people were injured in the day’s violence, including those who have been transported to hospitals with gunshots.
Investigators said there was no apparent relationship between the shooter and the victims but that it’s still early in the case and further information may emerge. It’s not yet clear how the gunman might have obtained the firearm or brought it onto school property.
The FBI’s Atlanta office revealed later Wednesday that the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office interviewed the suspect and his father last year after the FBI received several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting.
“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the FBI said in a statement. “The subject denied making the threats online. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject. At the time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement on the local, state, or federal levels.”
Out of the nine injured, eight are students and one is a teacher, authorities said .
Neither Hosey nor Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith were prepared to discuss the extent of the injuries at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Video from a helicopter operated by Atlanta News First showed at least one person being airlifted from the scene at Apalachee High, with multiple ambulances in the vicinity. Officials told the news outlet that the person being airlifted had been taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, a Level 1 trauma center in Atlanta.
Law enforcement arrives after a shooting was reported Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia.
Ciera Roberts, a spokesperson for Barrow County Schools, told HuffPost that all schools in the district were put on a soft lockdown as soon as Apalachee locked down. Approximately 1,900 students attend the school.
All Barrow County schools will be closed the rest of the week, with grief counselors available “every day this week and thereafter,” Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told reporters.
Students at Apalachee High are evacuated to the football stadium Wednesday after the school campus was placed on lockdown due to a shooting.
Smith at times struggled to maintain his composure during the afternoon news conference, telling reporters that as a lifelong Barrow County resident, he never could have anticipated “the pure evil that happened today.”
“This hits home for me. I was born and raised here. I went to school in this school system. My kids go to this school system,” he said. “I’m proud of this school system. My heart hurts for these kids. My heart hurts for our community. I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county.”
“Love will prevail over what happened today,” he said. “I assure you of that.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a separate news conference that the Justice Department will provide whatever resources local and state law enforcement partners require.
“I’m devastated for the families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy,” he said.
Approximately 1,900 students attend Apalachee High.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said he has directed “all available state resources” to the school and was “praying for the safety of those in our classrooms.”
“We will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners as we gather information and further respond to this situation,” Kemp said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the shooting at the top of a briefing Wednesday afternoon, urging Congress to recognize that “this is not normal” and calling for steps like universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring the safe storage of firearms, investing in violence-prevention programs and passing a national red-flag law.
“Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write,” President Joe Biden said in a written statement. “We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, echoed that sentiment while speaking at a rally in New Hampshire.
“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 the classroom,” Harris said. “It does not have to be this way. It does not have to be this way.”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called the shooting a “tragic event” on social media .
“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” he wrote, calling the shooter a “sick and deranged monster.”
The suspect is being charged as an adult, an approach to juvenile criminal justice that has been criticized .
Lydia O’Connor and Marita Vlachou contributed reporting.
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