Teen accused of killing 4 at Georgia high school questioned over online threats

WINDER, Ga. — A teenager accused of opening fire at a Georgia high school was questioned by police more than a year ago as part of an investigation into online posts threatening to shoot up the school, but officials said investigators did not have enough evidence to make an arrest.

A 14-year-old suspect has been charged as an adult in a shooting Wednesday outside Atlanta that killed four people and wounded nine. He is accused of using an assault rifle to kill two students and two teachers in the hallway outside his algebra class, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at a news conference.

It was the latest in dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including notably deadly ones in Newtown, Conn.; Parkland, Fla.; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have sparked heated debates over gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children grow up trained in shooting drills. But the nation’s gun laws have changed little.

Classes at Apalachee High School were canceled Thursday, though some people came to pay their respects, leaving flowers around the flagpole and kneeling in the grass with their heads bowed. Among them was Linda Carter, who lives nearby. Although she has no children who attend the school, Carter said the rampage left her angry and hurt.

“I’m upset, I’m crying all the time,” Carter said. “These children should not have lost their lives. These parents, these adults, these teachers should not have lost their lives yesterday.”

When the suspect slipped out of the classroom Wednesday, Lyela Sayarath thought her quiet classmate, who had recently transferred, was leaving the school again. But he returned later and tried to return to class. Some students went to open the locked door, but instead they retreated.

“I suspect they saw something, but for some reason they didn’t open the door,” Sayarath said.

The teen then turned the gun on people in the hallway, authorities said.

He was charged in the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, Hosey said. The teenager was to be taken to a regional juvenile detention center Thursday.

When the teenager was not allowed to return to class, Sayarat heard a series of gunshots.

“There were about 10 or 15 of them at once, one after the other,” she said.

The math students fell to the floor and began crawling, looking for a safe corner to hide.

Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes of the report of shots fired, Hosey said. The teen immediately surrendered and was arrested.

At least nine other people — eight students and a teacher at the Winder school — were taken to hospitals. All were expected to survive, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said. Authorities were still investigating how the teenager obtained the gun and brought it into the school of about 1,900 students in a rapidly developing area on the edge of the growing Atlanta metropolitan area.

“All the students who had to watch their teachers and classmates die, those who had to limp out of school, looked terrified,” Sayarat said.

It was the 30th mass killing 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 died in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within 24 hours, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

The teen was questioned 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 scope of the threats and referred the case to the sheriff’s office in Jackson County, which neighbors Barrow County.

The sheriff’s office interviewed the 13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting rifles in the home but the teen did not have free access to them. The teen also denied making threats online.

The sheriff’s office notified local schools to continue monitoring the teen, but there was no probable cause to arrest or take additional action, the FBI said.

Hosey said the state Department of Family and Children’s Services also had prior contact with the teen and will investigate whether it has anything to do with the shooting. Local news agencies reported that the teen’s family home in Bethlehem, Georgia, was searched Wednesday.

Hundreds of people gathered at Jug Tavern Park in downtown Winder for a vigil Wednesday evening. Volunteers passed out candles. Some knelt as a Methodist pastor led the crowd in prayer after a Barrow County commissioner read a Jewish prayer of mourning.

Christopher Vasquez, 15, said he attended the vigil because he needed a sense of security and stability.

He was at band practice when the lockdown was imposed. He said it felt like regular practice as students lined up to hide in the band closet.

“When we heard the pounding on the door and the SWAT (team) came to get us out, that’s when I knew it was serious,” he said. “I just started shaking and crying.”

He finally calmed down when he was at the football stadium. “I just prayed that everyone I loved would be safe,” he said.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Sharon Johnson, Mike Stewart and Erik Verduzco in Winder; Beatrice Dupuy in New York; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Charlotte Kramon, Kate Brumback and Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska.