Apalachee High School students recount horror of deadly shooting
Student: 'I thought it was fake until I heard ... more gunshots and screaming'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A 14-year-old student opened fire inside a north central Georgia high school on Wednesday, sending shock waves of terror through the hallways along with confusion about whether the incident was real or just a drill.
Students and teachers inside the school learned the events turned out to be real, as four people – two teachers and two students – were killed and nine others injured.
The shooter, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was taken into custody. According to Georgia Bureau of Investigations Director Chris Hosey, he will be tried as an adult.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FOX 5 in Atlanta spoke to students and parents about the events that unfolded at the school on Wednesday afternoon.
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Students and staff gather next to the football field after law enforcement officers responded to a fatal shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Sept. 4, 2024. (ABC Affiliate WSB via REUTERS)
One student told a reporter that he was not sure what was happening, but then he got a notification on the school’s internal communication system to go into a hard lockdown. Then he and other students went to a corner of the classroom, got down to the ground and huddled.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Another student told the reporter he heard a lot of commotion and was surprised because he was listening to music at the time.
"I just heard gunshots … I had my headphones on full blast. I was blasting Ken Carson and I heard like gunshots go off, and I was like, ‘Oh c--p.’ My friend, like, pushed me to the ground, and I thought it was fake until I heard like more gunshots and screaming," he said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The student continued to describe the scene, saying when the room was finally opened by police, the students were told to put their hands up, and when they left the room they saw a body in a room with a gun, bullets and blood on the floor.
Students also told the station that when they left the building they saw an "AK" on the floor. Authorities have not yet said what kind of gun the shooter used.
A student who spoke to the station said active-shooter drills are done "all the time," so many students thought it was a joke at first.
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That was until another student told her there were police all over the place and that it was not a drill. The student also told the reporter a chase was taking place in the school.
"Our math teacher got shot, and [the teacher] was just lying there, like in blood and everything," the student said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FOX 5 spoke to a 10th-grade female student who said she could hear the gunshots. Her teacher, she said, left the classroom, returned and turned out the lights.
She said she could hear students screaming in the hallway, and when they were let them out of the classroom, they could see the aftermath.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A mother and daughter were reunited after the shooting and spoke with the station, describing what she felt when she learned about the events at her daughter’s school.
The mother said she had a lot of anxiety at first not being able to reach her daughter: "It’s a terrible feeling," she said.
Her daughter, a sophomore at the school, spoke about the drill situation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"First they said it was a drill, then they said it wasn’t a drill," the daughter said. "When I figured it out, I texted my mom. My mom had told me, ‘I love you,’ and I was scared."
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She further explained that she was worried she may never see her parents again.