FBI Atlanta georgia shooting

• Sept. 4, 2024Updated 11:16 p.m. ET

The shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga.,

on Wednesday killed two teachers and two students, becoming the deadliest episode of school violence in the state’s history. At least nine others were injured.

The authorities identified the dead students as two 14-year-olds, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. The educators killed were identified as Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, officials said. Spellings of the names were not confirmed by the authorities.

Law enforcement officials said in a news conference that the victims taken to the hospital were expected to make a full recovery.

“Those that are deceased are heroes in my book,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “Those that are in the hospital recovering right now are heroes in my book.”

Mason Schermerhorn was described by friends of his family as a lighthearted teenager who liked spending time with his family, reading, telling jokes, playing video games and visiting Walt Disney World. He had recently started at the school.

“He really enjoyed life,” said Doug Kilburn, 40, a friend who has known Schermerhorn’s mother for a decade. “He always had an upbeat attitude about everything.”

Louis Briscoe, a co-worker and friend of Schermerhorn’s mother, said the boy and his family were looking forward to an upcoming vacation there.

When Mr. Briscoe learned about the shooting at the high school in the afternoon, he called Schermerhorn’s mother to ask if everything was OK. She told him: “Mason’s gone.”

“My heart just dropped,” said Mr. Briscoe, 45. He added, “Nobody should have to go through this type of pain.”

The gunman — who the authorities identified as a 14-year-old student at the school — will be charged with murder, officials said. Students heard gunfire as they barricaded themselves in classrooms.

The shooting has shaken residents in Winder, which has about 18,000 residents and is roughly 50 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.

At the high school, Ms. Irimie and Mr. Aspinwall were math teachers. Mr. Aspinwall was also the football team’s defensive coordinator.

David Phenix, a math special education teacher and the school’s golf coach, was injured during the shooting. Katie Phenix, his daughter, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that he was shot in the foot and hip, shattering his hip bone.

“He arrived to the hospital alert and awake,” she wrote in the post, adding that he had surgery earlier that day.

The FBI’s Atlanta Division Wednesday night said that it had received threats last year involving then-13-year-old Colt Gray, the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School.

In May of 2023, the National Threat Operations Center received anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time, FBI Atlanta posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The threats contained images of guns and the FBI determined that the posts originated in Georgia, specifically in Jackson County. The FBI turned over the evidence to the Jackson County Sheriff’s office, which interviewed Gray and his father, who said that he had hunting guns in the house but Gray did not have ‘unsupervised access’ to them.

There was no probable cause at the time for an arrest or additional law enforcement action, the post said. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject.

Apalachee High School is in Barrow County and not a part of Jackson County schools or any city schools within Jackson County.

It is uncertain whether Gray attended a school in Jackson County before moving into the Barrow County School District.

GBI Director Chris Hosey confirmed the FBI information during a 9 p.m. news conference.

On Wednesday, Gray was identified by the GBI as the suspect who killed two teachers and two students while injuring nine others at Apalachee High School.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office responded on Facebook with a note from Sheriff Janis Mangum.

“My phone is blowing up with messages from people about social media postings about other possible incidents. To my knowledge, there is not a list indicating any of this,” the post read. “This is an ongoing investigation at Apalachee. Please be mindful of those who have been affected by this tragedy and continue to pray for all involved.”

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