A 14-year-old killed 2 students and 2 teachers in Georgia school shooting, officials say

WINDER, Ga. —  A 14-year-old student opened fire at a Georgia high school and killed four people on Wednesday, authorities said, sending students scrambling for shelter in their classrooms — and eventually to the football stadium — as officers swarmed the campus and parents raced to find out if their children were safe.

The dead were identified as two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, about an hour’s drive from Atlanta. At least nine other people — eight students and one teacher — were taken to hospitals with injuries.

The words “hard lockdown” appeared on a screen in junior Layla Ferrell’s health class and lights began flashing. She and her frightened classmates piled desks and chairs in front of the door to create a barricade, she recalled.

Sophomore Kaylee Abner was in geometry class when she heard the gunshots. She and her classmates ducked behind their teacher’s desk, and then the teacher began flipping the desk in an attempt to barricade the classroom door, Kaylee said. A classmate beside her was praying, and she held his hand while they all waited for police.

After students poured into the football stadium, Kaylee saw teachers who had taken off their shirts to help treat gunshot wounds.

Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes after a report of shots fired went out, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. The suspect, a student at the school, immediately surrendered and was taken into custody. He is being charged with murder as an adult, authorities said.

The teen had been interviewed after the FBI received anonymous tips in May 2023 about online threats to commit an unspecified school shooting, the agency said in a statement.

The FBI narrowed the threats down and referred the case to the Sheriff’s Office in Jackson County, adjacent to Barrow County.

The Sheriff’s Office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting guns in the house but the teen did not have unsupervised access to them. The teen also denied making any online threats.

The Sheriff’s Office alerted local schools to continue monitoring the teen, but there was no probable cause for arrest to warrant additional action, the FBI said.

Authorities were looking into how the suspect obtained a gun and got it into the school in Barrow County, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. At an afternoon news conference, officials would not say what type of gun was used.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith choked up as he began to speak at the news conference. He said he was born and raised in the community and his kids are in the school system.

“My heart hurts for these kids. My heart hurts for our community,” he said. “But I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county. I want that to be very clear and known. Love will prevail over what happened today.”

It was the latest among dozens of school shooting across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly attacks in Newtown, Conn.; Parkland, Fla.; and Uvalde, Texas. The killings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to active-shooter drills in classrooms. But they have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.

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Before Wednesday’s shooting, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. this year, according to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as cases in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

Last year ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the U.S., making 2023 one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country.

On Wednesday in Winder, Landon Culver, an 11th grader, said he had stepped out of his algebra class to get a drink of water when he heard shots and then saw someone wearing a black hoodie with a long gun.

“I didn’t really stick around too long to look,” he said.

He ran back inside the classroom and locked the door. The class huddled in the back in the dark and waited for the rampage to end. Landon listened as gunshots were heard in the building.

“You’re just wondering like, which one of those is going to be somebody that you’re best friends with or somebody that you love?” he said.

Later, police officers arrived and escorted the students out. As they were leaving the building, Landon saw “multiple people who had been shot.”

“You hear about this kind of stuff, but you, like, never think it’s going to happen to you until, like, it’s happening.”

Sophomore Shantal Sanvee, who was in a classroom near the gunshots, said, “I saw, like, a whole lot of blood. And it was just, it was just horrible.

“I don’t think I want to be here for like a long time now,” she added.

Ashley Enoh was at home Wednesday morning when she got a text from her brother, a senior at Apalachee High: “Just so you know, I love you,” he texted her.

When Erin Clark, 42, received a text from her son Ethan that there was an active shooter, she rushed from her job at an Amazon warehouse to the school. The two texted “I love you,” and Clark said she prayed for her son as she drove.

With the main road blocked to the school, Clark parked and ran with other parents. They were directed to the football field, and amid the chaos, Clark found Ethan, who just started his senior year, sitting on the bleachers.

Clark said her son was writing an essay in class when he first heard the gunshots, and he worked with his classmates to barricade the door and hide.

“I’m so proud of him for doing that,” she said. “He was so brave.”

Students had started the school year a little over a month ago.

“It makes me scared to send him back,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

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Barrow County schools will be closed for the rest of the week as they cooperate with the investigation, and grief counseling will be available.

“It’s just outrageous that every day, in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive,” Vice President Kamala Harris said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

In a message posted to social media, former President Trump said: “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”

Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement: “This is a day every parent dreads, and Georgians everywhere will hug their children tighter this evening because of this painful event.”

The FBI’s Atlanta office said its agents were at the school “coordinating with and supporting local law enforcement.”

Apalachee High School has about 1,900 students, according to records from Georgia education officials. It’s named after the Apalachee River on the southern edge of Barrow County.

On Wednesday evening, hundreds gathered in Jug Tavern Park in downtown Winder for an ecumenical prayer vigil. Volunteers handed out candles, and also water, pizza and tissues. Some knelt as a Methodist minister led the crowd in prayer after a Barrow County commissioner read a Jewish prayer of mourning.

Some were clad in athletic gear from Apalachee’s crosstown rival, Winder-Barrow High School. At the end of the vigil, someone released balloons in Apalachee’s blue, gold and white.

Amy writes for the Associated Press.