Ga. School Shooting Suspect Tried To Enter His Class With A Gun, But Was Stopped: Student

The suspect in Wednesday’s school shooting in Winder, Georgia, left his math class before the attack and apparently tried to reenter the room with a gun, but a classmate stopped him by not opening the door, a student has said.

Junior Lyela Sayarath told CNN that the suspect, 14-year-old Colt Gray, had been sitting next to her at the start of the class at Apalachee High School but that Gray, who she said often skipped class, got up and left.

The period was nearly finished when he returned, she said, knocking at the door to be let back in because the doors lock automatically after they’re closed.

“They almost let him in. ... But I’m pretty sure she saw that he had a gun and so she backed away,” Sayarath said. “I think he wanted to come to us first.”

She then heard him fire “about 10-15 rounds, back to back,” prompting everyone in her class to drop to the floor and crawl to one area of the room, said Sayarath, who also described the moment in similar remarks to others in the press.

Two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, were killed in the attack, along with teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, authorities said at a press conference Wednesday night.

The shooter, who was armed with an assault-style rifle, surrendered to two resource officers just minutes after a report of shots went out. He was taken into custody and is being charged as an adult with murder, authorities said .

Sayarath said she rarely spoke with the suspect, describing him as quiet and reserved. She wasn’t surprised that he was identified as the shooter based on how withdrawn he was.

The FBI has since revealed that the suspect was previously questioned by police over alleged online threats to carry out a school shooting in 2023.

The teen denied making the online threats and his father, when questioned, said his son didn’t have unsupervised access to the family’s hunting guns, authorities said.

It remains unclear how the shooter obtained the firearm used in Wednesday’s attack.