At least four people are dead and 9 others injured in a shooting at a Georgia high school
The shooting death of a 14-year-old student at Apalachee high school in Barrow county, Ga., on Wednesday night
Police agencies rushed to Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Ga., on Wednesday after a shooting was reported. A suspect is in custody, officials said.
The authorities said that the two 14-year-old students who died were Mason and Christian. Officials said the two adults killed were Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. The names were not confirmed by the authorities.
Chris Hosey of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said that those who are dead are heroes. “Those that are in the hospital recovering right now are heroes in my book.”
Mason Schermerhorn was described by friends of his family as a lighthearted teenager who liked spending time with his family, reading, telling jokes, playing video games and visiting Walt Disney World. He had recently started at the school.
He liked life very much, said Doug Kilburn, a friend who has been with his mother for a decade. “He always had an upbeat attitude about everything.”
When Mr. Briscoe learned about the shooting at the high school in the afternoon, he called Schermerhorn’s mother to ask if everything was OK. She said that Mason was gone.
The student who killed a teacher at the school will be charged with murder, according to officials. Students barricade themselves in classrooms as they heard gunfire.
David Phenix, a math special education teacher and the school’s golf coach, was injured during the shooting. He was shot in the foot and hip and shattered his hip bone, according to his daughter.
The Apalachee High School Shooting: An Investigation into the Structural Violation in Barrow County and the State of Georgia
Apalachee High School started its academic year on Aug. 1, according to its online calendar. The school is located on the outskirts of Winder, near a highway that connects Athens and Atlanta. The school has been in existence for 25 years according to a recent message to parents.
“I have ordered all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School, and encourage all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state,” Kemp said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said its agents were assisting local, state and federal law enforcement who are investigating the violence.
The sheriff said authorities will provide an update at 4 p.m. local time. But he also predicted, “This is gonna take multiple days for us to get answers as to what happened and why this happened.”
The local hospital refused to say whether they had patients from the school, but media in Georgia report at least two deaths. NPR has reached out to law enforcement agencies for more details.
“We’re not releasing any information as far as injuries, but we have multiple injuries,” Smith said, calling the process so far “a very, very fluid investigation.”
Sheriff Smith spoke with reporters outside the school. Smith said what you see behind us is an evil thing. “At about 9:30 this morning, we received the first call that there was an active shooter” on the campus, he added.
A student opened fire at a high school in US’ Georgia on Wednesday, killing one teacher and injuring others, local authorities said. The shooter was taken into custody and will be charged with murder, they added. The victim of the shooting is a 58-year-old teacher who was shot in the head, local authorities further said.