One threw her B'day party, another died protecting kids, fates of 2 teachers killed in Georgia school shooting

New details in the Georgia high school shooting case revealed that Richard Aspinwall, the mathematics teacher and football coach who was one of the two teachers killed in Wednesday’s attack was trying to protect the children of his class when he was shot. Tragedy struck Georgia this week after 14-year-old Colt Grey went on a shooting rampage killing four people at Apalachee High School in Winder.

Aspinwall, his fellow maths teacher, Cristina Irimie, 53, and two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo were the victims of the tragic attack. According to ABC News, the attacks began when 39-year-old Aspinwall was teaching a class when banging was heard on lockers adjacent to the classroom.

Instead of trying to hide, the teacher went outside the classroom to try to protect his students. “My teacher, Coach Aspinwall, he opened the door, and he ran outside to see what’s going on,” Stephanie Reyna, 17, told ABC News. Moments later gunshots were heard and Aspinwall was found lying prone in the doorway of the classroom.

“He was just there, in the doorway, just laying there. He was trying to crawl back to us … We just think he was trying to get to us,” the student told the American news outlet.

The second teacher was celebrating her birthday with students

Before the shooting incident erupted, the second school teacher was about to celebrate her belated birthday with the students. “She decided to bake a cake and bring pizza to her class the day she died so she could celebrate her birthday with her kids,” one of Irimie’s family friends, Corneliu Caprar, told CNN.

Irimie used to be popular and much-loved among the students and was a member of the Romanian community in Barrow County. She used to be a proficient Romanian folk dancer. The pastor of St Mary’s Romanian Orthodox Church, Nicolae Clempus, told Fox 5 in Atlanta that Irimie was “dedicated to children in everything she was doing … She was always joking about things, always laughing. One of the first things everybody will tell you about her is that she was very joyful and happy.”

Support has been also streaming in for the families of the two 14-year-old teenagers who died in the carnage. An online fundraiser has been set up by the sister of Christian Angulo to cover funeral expenses. The family has managed to acquire over $150,000 by Friday, and a separate fundraising page for Mason Schermerhorn had raised a similar amount.

Alanna, the sister of Mason, who lost his life in the attack, told The Washington Post that the teen had mild autism. “I thought he had just run away because sometimes when he’s stressed he would run away. Like, to get away from everything," she said. The boy has also texted his mother from a school restroom during the shooting debacle. “He was a great kid, from what I was told. Loved life, didn’t have any issues with anyone,” the mother’s colleague, Ronald Clark, said.

Meanwhile, Ismael Angulo, the father of Christian Angulo said that the family had moved to Winder Georgia “in search for peace”. The boy’s older sister, Lisette Angulo, wrote on the fundraising page that he was “so loved by many. His loss was so sudden and unexpected, we are truly heartbroken.”