Four people were killed with nine others taken to the hospital for injuries at Apalachee High School on Sep. 4, sending other schools into lockdown. The suspected shooter, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was charged with murder and will be prosecuted as an adult.
In May 2023, FBI’s National Threat Operations Center got anonymous tips about school shooting threats made online, which were traced to Georgia. Gray and his father were interviewed but denied any involvement at the time. Writings were later discovered in Gray’s bedroom referencing previous shootings, including the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
A Discord account associated with Gray shared firearms screenshots and implied a future mass shooting. The account expressed a desire to target an elementary school and displayed anger at the societal acceptance of transgender people. The platform removed the account, although the FBI was unable to confirm the identity of the user.
Reports of a shooter in the high school came in around 10:20 a.m. on that Wednesday, and law enforcement quickly followed. After the event, all schools in Barrow County went into lockdown for the rest of the week with counseling available as an option.
Sergio Caldera, a senior at the school during the shooting, spoke with ABC News about his experience during this time.
“My teacher goes and opens the door to see what’s going on. Another teacher comes running in and tells her to close the door because there is an active shooter,” Caldera said.
According to a USA TODAY database, this is the 604th mass killing since 2006 where four or more people were killed in the U.S. It was also found that Gray is the youngest school shooter suspect involved in a mass killing since 2006. In the previous academic year, school gun violence killed 36 and injured 87 people.
President Biden spoke at a press conference after the shooting expressing his grief regarding the situation.
“What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart,” Biden said. “Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”
Prior to the shooting, the shooter’s mother, Marcie Gray, claimed that her worry for her son had been building. The last text she received from her son was a cryptic apology, and she warned the school about an emergency before the shooting occurred.
Colin Gray, the father of the teenage shooter, faces felony charges regarding his connection with the disastrous event. Law enforcement sources say that Colin Gray had bought his son the rifle used in the shooting as a present. He appeared in court separate from his son, and was officially charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of second-degree cruelty to children. He faces a maximum of up to 180 years in prison.
Vice President Harris spoke during a New Hampshire campaign about the shooting.
“We’re still gathering information about what happened. But we know that there were multiple fatalities and injuries. Our hearts are with the students, the teachers and the families, of course. And we are grateful to the first responders and law enforcement that were on the scene. But this is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies,” Harris said.