UPDATE. 4:45 P.M.- The GBI said at an afternoon news conference that two students and two teachers were killed by a 14-year-old student, Gray Colt, who has been charged with murder and will be tried as an adult. Colt was confronted by law enforcement officers and immediately surrendered when ordered to do so.
UPDATE. 4:15 P.M. – A spokeswoman for Hall County Fire Rescue confirms two ambulances from the department responded to the school but transported no patients. “A Battalion Chief and Battalion Captain responded as well and assisted,” Kimberlie Ledsinger added.
UPDATE 3:15 P.M. – A community vigil is planned tonight at 7:00 at Jug Taveren Park on East Athens Street in Winder.
UPDATE 2:45 P.M. – The GBI is confirming that four people died in the shooting and that nine have been hospitalized. In addition, the agency is denying reports that the gunman was killed, saying he is alive and in custody and that it appears he was acting alone. Also, the GBI says rumors of shootings at other Barrow County school are not true.
(FROM SRN NEWS/AP) – Jacob King, a sophomore football player, said he had dozed off in his world history class after a morning practice when he heard about 10 gunshots.
King said he didn’t believe the shooting was real until he heard an officer yelling at someone to put down their gun. King said when his class was led out, he saw officers shielding what appeared to be an injured student.
Ashley Enoh was at home Wednesday morning when she got a text from her brother, who’s a senior at Apalachee High School:
“Just so you know, I love you,” he texted her.
When she asked in the family group chat what was going on, he said there was a shooter at the school. Enoh’s younger sister, a junior at the school, said she had heard about the shooter and that everything was on lockdown.
When Erin Clark, 42, received a text from her son Ethan, a senior at the high school, that there was an active shooter, she rushed from her job at the Amazon warehouse to the school. The two texted “I love you,” and Clark said she prayed for her son as she drove to the high school.
With the main road blocked to the school, Clark parked and ran with other parents. Parents were then directed to the football field. Amid the chaos, Clark found Ethan sitting on the bleachers.
Clark said her son was writing an essay in class when he first heard the gunshots. Her son then worked with his classmates to barricade the door and hide.
“I’m so proud of him for doing that,” she said. “He was so brave.”
Students had only started the school year a little over a month ago before the shooting Wednesday.
“It makes me scared to send him back,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Traffic going to the school was backed up for more than a mile as parents tried to get to their children there.
The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed by his Homeland Security Advisor, Liz Sherwood-Randall, about the shooting and the administration will coordinate with federal, state and local officials as it receives more information.
The shooting had reverberations in Atlanta, where patrols of schools in that city were beefed up, authorities said. More patrols of Atlanta schools would be done “for the rest of the day out of an abundance of caution,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.
In Gainesville and Hall County, classes continued but security officers at schools in the two public school systems were put on high alert because of what happened just 30 miles down the road.
UPDATE 1:30 P.M.: CNN is quoting unnamed law enforcement sources as saying at least four people were killed and 30 wounded in the incident. Several media outlets are reporting at that a least one patient was taken by air ambulance to Grady Hospital in Atlanta and another air ambulance was seen landing at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Barrow in Winder.
UPDATE 1:15 P.M.: The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office and GBI held a brief meeting with reporters shortly after 1:00 but shared little new information, saying a formal news conference will be held at 4:00 this afternoon. One official did says “it will take several days to get all the answers.” He did confirm “multiple injuries” but did not say anything about the seriousness of them or any fatalities.
FBI agents have responded to assist local and state law enforcement.
Barrow County school officials say students have been cleared to leave the campus and parents have been notified to pick them up. Transportation will be provided to students who need it.
Gov. Brian Kemp says he has directed all available state resources to assist at the scene. Kemp also urged “all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state.”
EARLIER STORY. POSTED 12:15 P.M.; The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office is reporting an unknown number of casualties following a shooting this morning at Appalachee High School.
One person is in custody.
Local law enforcement officers from several jurisdictions are on the scene as well as at least one unit from Hall County Fire and Rescue. State law enforcement officers are there as well.
At least two ground ambulances have left the scene and a helicopter ambulance landed about 12:15.
One person is in custody.