Georgia school shooting: Who is Colt Gray, 14-year-old gunman, one of the youngest in US?

“It’s just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. We’ve got to stop it. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris , who is also the Democratic presidential nominee, said on Wednesday (September 4) after four people were fatally shot at Apalachee High School, in Winder, Georgia.

A 14-year-old, now identified as Colt Gray, is the suspected gunman in the school shooting and has been taken into custody, with officials saying that he will be tried as an adult.

What do we know about the shooting? Who was the shooter? Here’s what has been revealed so far.

The shooting

At approximately 10:20 am on September 4, around two hours after classes at Apalachee High School in Winder began, Barrow County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of an active shooter.

Students of the school recount that they heard gunshots and the sound of screaming outside their classrooms. Janice Martinez, one of the students, told CNN, “When this happened, I entered the class and then we were there for like, second period. So it was like during the middle of it, and I heard screaming and everything.”

She added that she initially thought it was someone “playing around in the hallways or something. I thought it was like someone just yelling or something. So I didn’t think much of it.” However, she noticed that “the noise kept getting louder and louder, and I was like, ‘No, no, guys.’ Like, I told everybody to get down. Get down, because, like, you don’t joke around with that.”

She concluded that the authorities quickly emerged on the scene and took them out of the classroom and onto the field.

Another student, 17-year-old Stephanie Folgar, described hearing “loud bangs” and panicking students hiding in the bathrooms and closet. “It’s scary knowing that that could’ve been you,” she was quoted as telling AFP.

The shooter

Shortly after the tragedy unfolded at the school, authorities responded to the situation and immediately took the suspect into custody.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) later said that they had identified the shooter to be Colt Gray, a 14-year-old, and he would be charged with murder and he will be tried as an adult for the murder of the four people.

GBI Director Chris Hosey also added that Gray had used an AR-platform weapon for the shooting. However, he did not provide any information on how investigators believe the suspect obtained the weapon or any other details on the weapon and ammunition used.

But who exactly is Colt Gray and what was his motive behind the shooting? According to Lyela Sayarath, a student at Apalachee High School who sat next to Gray, he was “quiet” and would often “skip class.”

Sayarath recalled how he left the room around 9:45 am. He didn’t take the bathroom pass with him, so she assumed he was skipping class. “He wasn’t there most times,” Sayarath said. “He either wouldn’t be there or skip class. But even what he would have talked it would have talked it would have just been one-word answers or just short statements.”

It has now emerged that the FBI had interviewed Gray last year after receiving anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting, but agents did not arrest him at the time. Reports state that the FBI had visited Gray in May 2023 and interviewed him and his father about the threats online, which included images of guns.

“The father stated that he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” the FBI said in a statement, adding that the suspect, who was then 13-year-old, denied making any threats.

“At the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels.”

Victims of the shooting

As the accused was taken into custody, authorities have revealed the identities of the four people who were fatally shot. They are: Mason Schermerhorn, a 14-year-old student, Christian Angulo, another 14-year-old student, Richard Aspinwall, a teacher, and Christina Irimie, a teacher.

As per a CNN report, the adults killed were both math teachers, with Aspinwall also an assistant football coach. Nine other people — eight students and one teacher — have been wounded and hospitalised, all of whom are expected to survive.

Malaise in the US

The shooting — the country’s 30th mass killing this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University — led to leaders expressing their sorrow and concern about gun control in the US.

US President Joe Biden said in a statement, “Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed. 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.”

“We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers. These measures will not bring those who were tragically killed today back, but it will help prevent more tragic gun violence from ripping more families apart,” he added.

Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said the perpetrator was a “sick and deranged monster”.

“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” the former president posted on his Truth Social platform. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”

The Georgia shooting is one among the many in 2024, which has claimed the lives of at least 131 people. Last year ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the US, making it one of the deadliest years on record.

With inputs from agencies