by Lexi Inks
On Wednesday September 4, a high school near Winder, Georgia went on lockdown after an armed gunman opened fire. Two students and two teachers were killed, and nine others were injured at Apalachee High School. The Georgia school shooter, a 14-year old Apalachee student named Colt Gray, was taken into custody and charged with murder, according to the Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith.
Unfortunately, this tragedy was not an isolated incident. FBI officials in Atlanta share that Gray was a suspect in a previous investigation after he threatened a school shooting in 2023. The report shared that the student had made vague threats using images of guns posted on an online gaming website, but he wasn’t charged at the time.
Apalachee High School has approximately 1900 enrolled students, all of whom were evacuated from the school. As news coverage began and more details were released in the hours following the Georgia school shooting, students at the school were just beginning to process what had happened.
“If it can happen here, when it’s just a normal day, it can happen anywhere,” one Apalachee student told an MSNBC reporter at the scene of the crime. This rings true in the U.S. today, as there have been 385 mass shootings within the country so far in 2024, per the Gun Violence Archive.
The school’s assistant football coach Richard Aspinwall and math teacher Christina Irimie were named as the two staff members killed in the shooting, and students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, were also killed. Gray is reported to have used an AR-style gun in the attack, but details about how he acquired the weapon haven’t yet been released.
Current U.S. Vice President and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Wednesday after news of the shooting was announced. “It does not have to be this way,” she said to the crowd, who erupted in cheers. As more details emerge about the Apalachee shooting, more commentary from national politicians will undoubtedly arise.
At the moment, the main focus is set on both the students and teachers whose lives were lost, those injured, and the rest of the school’s population — all who are left reeling from the tragedy. In each video shared across social media, it’s clear that many of the students being interviewed are, understandably, in a state of shock.
“It all just felt like it didn’t happen, like it’s not real,” one student shared with CBS.
