The shooter was reportedly first questioned by police last year after the FBI received anonymous tips about online threats suggesting a planned shooting.
Last year, reports of online threats suggesting a planned shooting led Georgia police to question a 13-year-old boy, but investigators did not have enough evidence to make an arrest.
Wednesday, The same teenager opened fire at his high school in the town of Winder, killing four people and wounding nine others.according to authorities.
Four dead and nine injured
The teenager was charged as an adult in the death Apalachee High School students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at a news conference.
At least nine other people – eight students and a teacher – were injured and taken to hospitals. Their injuries are not life-threatening, according to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith.
The teenager, now 14, was due to be transferred to a regional youth detention centre on Thursday.
Armed with an assault rifle, The teenager pointed his gun at students in a school hallway when his classmates refused to open the door for him to return to his algebra class.explains a classmate, Lyela Sayarath.
“I guess they saw something, that for some reason they didn’t open the door.”adds the young girl.
When she looked at him through a window in the room, she saw the student turned around and heard “10 or 15 consecutive shots”.
The students got on the ground and crawled around looking for a hiding place.
Two school security officers arrested the shooter within minutes of the report of gunfire, Georgia State Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. The teen immediately surrendered and was taken into custody.
Online threats last year
The teenager was questioned after the FBI received anonymous tips in May 2023 regarding online threats that suggested an unspecified school shooting plotthe American agency said in a press release.
The FBI forwarded the case to the sheriff’s office in Jackson County, which borders Barrow County.
The sheriff’s office then interviewed the boy, then 13, and his father, who said that There were shotguns in the house, but the teenager did not have unsupervised access to themThe latter also denied making threats online.
The sheriff’s office alerted local schools to continue monitoring the teen, but there was no sufficient cause for arrest or further action at the time, the FBI said.
Chris Hosey adds that The state Division of Family and Children Services has had previous contact with the teen and is investigating whether it was related to the shooting.Local media reported that law enforcement raided the teen’s family home in Bethlehem, Georgia, east of the high school, on Wednesday.
Authorities are still investigating how the teenager obtained the gun used in the shooting and brought it into the school of about 1,900 students in Barrow County, a growing suburban area on the edge of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
The 30th mass shooting since the beginning of the year in the United States
This is the latest in a long series of shootings in the United States in recent years, following those in Newtown (Connecticut), Parkland (Florida) and Uvalde (Texas), which were particularly deadly.
School shootings have sparked heated debates over gun control as drills become more commonplace for students in classrooms. But the nation’s gun laws remain unchanged.
Wednesday’s shooting is the 30th mass shooting in the United States since the beginning of the yearaccording to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people died in the 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.
“I prayed that everyone I love would be safe”
Wednesday evening, Hundreds of people gathered in Jug Tavern Park in downtown Winder for a vigilVolunteers handed out candles, water, food and tissues. Some knelt as a Methodist minister led a prayer, after a Barrow County commissioner read a Jewish prayer of mourning.
Christopher Vasquez, 15, was rehearsing with his marching band when the stay-at-home order was given. He said it was a normal drill, with students lining up to hide in the band closet.
“When we heard a knock at the door and the SWAT came to get us, that’s when I knew it was serious.”he adds. “I started shaking and crying”.
“I was just praying that everyone I love would be safe.”.