A student opened fire inside Apalachee High School in Georgia, killing four and injuring at least nine. The shooter, 14-year-old Colt Gray, had brought an AR-15 into the school in a premeditated school shooting plot. Two teachers and two students were killed, with seven shot and two others injured in the attack on the morning of September 4th.

The alarm was sounded by a wearable panic button system, distributed only a few days earlier to teachers. Several teachers activated theirs, causing a lockdown and a warning to flash on the school’s smartboards. Students originally thought that the lockdown was a drill, as Georgia schools are required to complete one active shooter drill before Oct 1st. each year. However, when shots began to ring out, panicked students fled the school or hid under desks. Doors automatically locked from outside, and many students were stuck outside in the hall, fleeing the school or trying to find shelter when Gray began to fire. He was apprehended by police six minutes later. 

Colt was investigated by the FBI for threats he had allegedly made last year toward his middle school on messaging app Discord, according to the New York Times. Colt had denied that he authored the messages, even though the email address connected to the account was his. That being said, the name of the account, and the threats made by it, were in Russian. The name, when translated to English, was Lanza, the last name of the Sandy Hook shooter. Gray told investigators he deleted the Discord account because it was getting hacked frequently, according to the reports of the sheriff’s office.

The shooter’s father, Colin Gray, owned weapons, but in 2023, he claimed he only had “hunting rifles” in his home to investigators, and that his son did not have “unfettered” access to them. However, when he was evicted from his home in 2022, he was shown to have several weapons, including an AR-15-style rifle. Mr. Gray had given his son the firearm that was used in the shooting as a Christmas gift this past year.

His son was known to have a troubled home, and Mr. Gray had been separated from Colt’s mother for several years leading up to the shooting. “He did what he did because of his environment” according to his maternal grandmother. He also had an expressed interest in previous school shootings, including the Parkland massacre from 2018. 

The wider community in Winder, Georgia has been rocked by the shooting, with a candlelight vigil being held later in the day. On Friday, around 50 onlookers, including the victims’ families and other students, attended the first hearing in the sentencing of Colt Gray and his father. 

In addition to the four counts of murder charged to Colt Gray, his father has also been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children, for allowing his son to possess a weapon. He will remain in custody as he goes through trial. Neither have opted for bond or bail. 

Later last week, it was revealed that Gray’s mother had called the school the day of the shooting, warning about alarming activity her son had been showing. A guidance counselor was sent to check on him, but Gray had already left his classroom at the time. 

The shooting is the 30th mass killing in the US this year, according to the Associated Press. The events in Apalachee have renewed talks of safe firearm storage, effective lockdown methods, and how parents can address their children’s fears about shootings at their own schools. South Lakes’ lockdown drill was postponed following the shooting.