Apalachee senior said classmates thought there was ‘somebody playing around’ when shots rang out

Apalachee High School students are recalling the terrifying moments they started to hear shots being fired inside the school on Wednesday.

Senior Favian Williford, 17, said it started out as a normal morning until he heard what sounded like banging, not gunshots, coming from the hallway.

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“I kinda just like ignored it, because like I thought it was just somebody playing around until everybody turned around,” Williford recalled. “Then, out of nowhere, we heard like five, six shots go off.”

He said that’s when he and his classmates ran to the corner and hid underneath desks.

His first reaction was to call his parents and sister.

“It was scary. I was shaking, I could barely type in the number,” he said. “The gunshots were right next to our classroom.”

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Williford says they spent about 15 minutes, but it felt like longer, until they were allowed to leave the classroom and were escorted to the football field.

Four people inside the school were shot and killed: 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo and math teachers 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall and 53-year-old Christina Irimie. Nine others were shot and rushed to the hospital, but are expected to survive.

The suspected shooter, 14-year-old Colt Gray, has been arrested and will be charged as an adult with murder, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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