Multiple people dead after school shooting in the United States, 14-year-old charged

Two children and two teachers were killed during a terrifying school shooting in the US. The student allegedly responsible will be tried as an adult.

Four people have died and nine others have been injured in a shooting at a school in the United States, just one day after the start of the school year.

Two of the dead are children, both aged 14, and two are teachers. The victims are Mason Schermerhorn, a 14-year-old student; Christian Angulo, also a 14-year-old student; Richard Aspinwall, a 39-year-old teacher; and Christina Irimie, a 53-year-old teacher.

The two teachers both taught mathematics, and Mr Aspinwall was also an assistant football coach.

From top left to bottom right: Christina Irimie, Richard Aspinwall, Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn.

The incident occurred in the US state Georgia, at Apalachee High School in the town of Winder, 80 kilometres east of Atlanta, at 10.30am local time (12.30am, Thursday, AEST).

A 14-year-old boy, a student at the school called Colt Gray, is now in custody and has been charged with the murder of the four. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) has said he will be tried as an adult.

Speaking to media, a tearful Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said “pure evil” had happened at the school.

Law enforcement and first responders respond to Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. Picture: Christian Monterrosa/AFP

“We cannot continue to accept this as normal,” said US President Joe Biden.

Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris said the shooting was a “senseless tragedy”. Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, said “our hearts are with the victims and loved ones,” and called the accused a “deranged monster”.

According to a tally compiled by CNN, there have been 45 school shootings in the United States this year. Students just returned from their long summer holidays, which typically run for about three months. So that works out to an average of about six school shootings per month of the school year, so far.

A special needs teacher, David Phenix, is among the injured after this shooting. According to his daughter, Kate, he was shot in the hip and the foot, suffering a shattered hip bone, and is now reportedly in a stable condition.

Thankfully, none of the people who have been hospitalised with injuries are expected to die.

“We don’t expect any more fatalities at this time,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at a news conference on Wednesday night, local time.

He confirmed that the suspect, Gray, had previously been spoken to by police.

“This is not recent, this is in the past, but we wanted to bring that to your attention,” Director Hosey told the media.

An air evacuation helicopter flying by after the shooting. Picture: Christian Monterrosa/AFP

“Let me stress again that this is a very fluid investigation. It’s still very active.

“We ask for your patience. This is a criminal investigation, and we’re going to treat it as such.

“We’re still trying to clarify a lot of the timeline from the time that he got here to school today until the incident.”

He said the gun used in the shooting was an “AR-platform style weapon”. Investigators are still trying to determine how it was obtained.

In a separate statement, the FBI said it had received “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified place and time” in May of 2023.

“The online threats contained photographs of guns,” the agency said.

“Within 24 hours, the FBI determined the online post originated in Georgia, and the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office referred the information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

“The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office located a possible subject, a 13-year-old male, and interviewed him and his father. His father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them.

“The subject denied making the threats online. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the suspect. At that time, there was no probably cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action.”

Special education maths teacher David Phenix was injured in the shooting.

Parents arrive to pick up their children after the shooting. (Photo by CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / AFP) / ALTERNATE CROP

Students ‘begged not to get shot’

Anetra Pattman had dropped her daughter, Macey Right, at school shortly before the shooting. Then she received a text: “Mom, I’m scared. I hear gunshots. Please come get me.”

“I knew she couldn’t call me, I knew that I couldn’t get her, I knew all of those things, and so I simply just tried to assure her that she was OK,” Dr Pattman, a former teacher, told CNN.

Macey said she and a group of classmates held hands and prayed during the ordeal. Then they heard yelling.

“I heard gunshots outside my classroom and people screaming, people begging not to get shot, and then people sitting beside me just shaking and crying,” she recounted.

Macey said she didn’t “want to go back” to school after the trauma.

“I feel like I shouldn’t have to go back to school worrying about dying. I want to go to school worrying about what my GPA (grade point average) is going to be when my year is over.”

‘Someone’s dead’

Other students have said they heard “screams” and were told to shelter in classrooms as the horror incident unfolded.

Mum Erin Clark said she received a text from her son Ethan Haney stating: “school shooting rn, (right now). I’m scared. I’m not joking”.

Her son followed that up with “I love you” and after that with “someone’s dead”.

Ms Clark told CNN that her son heard up to nine shots before his classroom door was closed. Students blocked the door with chairs and tables.

Ethan made it out “OK,” his mum said on social media.

Distressing texts from Ethan Haney to his mum Erin. Picture: Erin Clarke: Facebook.

Ethan made out of the school. Picture: Erin Clarke: Facebook.

Talking to the US’ ABC News student Sergio Caldera, 17, said he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots.

“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’s an active shooter,” Caldera said.

The student said they heard screams from outside as they “huddled up”.

Images from Winder showed students coming together in a circle on a nearby football field after they evacuated the school.

Students huddle together on football field after the shooting. Picture: ABC News.

Another student, Lyela Sayarath, told CNN she had been sitting next to the alleged gunman in algebra class moments before the shooting started.

She said Gray left the classroom at about 9.45am. She wondered whether he was going to the bathroom, but as he didn’t take a hall pass, thought he might be skipping class entirely.

Later, shortly before the class was set to end, a voice over the school’s loudspeaker told Lyela’s teacher to check her email. And then the alleged gunman reappeared outside the room’s door, which was closed, and locks automatically.

Another girl in the class went to open the door for him, but then jumped back, having presumably noticed he was carrying a gun.

Student Lyela Sayarath speaking to CNN about what she witnessed.

“I guess he saw we weren’t going to let him in. And I guess the classroom next to me, their door was open, so I think he just started shooting in the classroom,” Lyela told CNN.

The students in Lyela’s classroom hid behind their desks and listened to gunshots from nearby, which came “one after another”. She counted “ten to fifteen rounds”.

“When we heard it, most people just dropped to the floor and like kind of crawled in an area like piled on top of each other,” she said.

“The teacher turned off the lights, but we all just kind of piled together. And like, I pushed desks in front of us.”

Lyela told CNN she had a friend in the room next door, where the attack was happening.

“He was pretty shaken up,” she said of her friend.

“He saw somebody get shot. He had blood on him. He was kinda limping. He looked horrified.”

Gray, Lyela said, was a quiet student who didn’t really talk, and often skipped class.

“Even when he would have talked, it was one-word answers and short statements.”

‘Pure evil’

Barrow County Sheriff Jud. Smith spoke to media outside the high school on Wednesday afternoon.

“I never imagined I would be speaking to the media about the pure evil that happened today,” he told reporters.

“My heart hurts for these kids but hate will not prevail. Love will prevail”.

Sheriff Smith said the teen accused was engaged by a school resource officer (a member of school staff who also acts as law enforcement) and “the school shooter soon realised if he didn't give himself up he would end up with an officer authorised shooting”.

“He gave up, got on the ground and the deputy took him into custody,” Sheriff Smith said.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith. (Photo by Megan Varner / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Ms Harris, speaking at a political rally in New Hampshire, began her speech to a crowd of supporters by addressing the tragedy.

“Our hearts are with all the students, the teachers and their families, of course. And we are grateful to the first responders and law enforcement,” the Vice President said.

“But this is just a senseless tragedy. On top of so many senseless tragedies. And it’s just outrageous that every day, in our country, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not they will come home alive. It’s senseless. We’ve got to stop it. We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country. In doesn’t have to be this way.

“Our kids are sitting in a classroom, where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big, beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of the classroom. It does not have to be this way.”

Phone threat

CNN has reported that Apalachee High School received a threatening call prior to the incident warning of shootings at five local schools.

Its is not known who placed the call.

The local police has asked the state’s GBI and Federal FBI to assist.

It’s been reported hat several people have died. Picture: ANF.

Parents and students leave the scene after being reunited after a shooting took place at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024. (Photo by CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / AFP)

Earlier, the school sent a message to parents saying it was “currently in a hard lockdown after reports of gunfire,” according to US media.

“Law enforcement is here. Please do not attempt to come to the school at this time while officers work to secure the area,” it added.

In a statement from the White House, President Biden said he had been briefed on the “tragic shooting”.

“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,” he 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”.

Originally published as Multiple people dead after school shooting in the United States, 14-year-old charged