A 14-year-old boy killed four people, two students his age and two teachers, and wounded nine others, when he opened fire Wednesday at his high school in the southeastern United States, Georgia, police said.
• Also read: ‘I thought I was going to die’: Students in shock after Apalachee school shooting
The alleged shooter, a 14-year-old student, was the subject of a report by the American federal police (FBI) in 2023, for having threatened to commit a shooting in a school, supported by photographs of weapons, indicated the FBI.
Law enforcement responded to Apalachee High School in Winder, about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta, the state capital, after emergency calls were received Wednesday morning.
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The teenager was arrested by a police officer assigned to security at the high school, local sheriff Jud Smith told reporters, later adding that the nine injured would recover.
“The shooter quickly realized that if he didn’t surrender,” the officer was going to open fire, the sheriff said. “He gave up, got on the ground and the officer arrested him.”
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He was taken into custody and will be tried as an adult for murder, the FBI said.
Vigil
This tragedy is part of a macabre series in the United States, which has long been hit by school and university shootings, and where a third of adults own a weapon.
After the latest killing, people gathered for a vigil on a sports field outside the high school, some forming a circle holding hands.
After the FBI reported the incident, the suspect was investigated but denied making the threats, while his father said the teenager did not have access to weapons in the home.
Local schools had also been notified so that the suspect would be subject to increased surveillance.
The shooter used an “AR-style” rifle and authorities are investigating how he got the weapon into the school, Georgia FBI Director Chris Hosey said.
Some students initially thought it was a new shooting exercise, one told AFP, referring to drills regularly practiced in American schools.
“My teacher put us all in a little corner and everyone hugged each other, some of my friends were crying. Until two armed police officers came in and told us that it wasn’t a drill and that we weren’t safe yet,” Alexsandra Romeo explained.
Another student, Stephanie Folgar, 17, said she heard “loud bangs” and panicked students hiding in bathrooms and closets. “It’s scary to know that it could have been you,” she said.
In the morning, the school management sent a message to parents indicating that they were implementing a “strict lockdown following gunshots.”
Once the school was secured, parents were able to go to the school to collect their children and long lines of vehicles were visible outside.
“Epidemic of violence”
US President Joe Biden has spoken out against this new tragedy, saying in a statement that the United States cannot “accept this as the norm”. The Democrat has been trying for years, without success, to further regulate access to firearms.
“We must end this epidemic of gun violence in our country, once and for all,” Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris said in a campaign speech.
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His opponent, Republican Donald Trump, denounced the actions of the shooter, calling him a “sick and deranged monster.”
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The state of Georgia, where the shooting took place, is one of the key states that could decide the election in November.
At least 11,557 people have been killed in the United States this year alone in 384 mass shootings (resulting in at least four victims, dead or injured), according to figures from the American NGO Gun Violence Archive.
In May 2022, 19 children and two teachers were victims of a horrific massacre at their school in Uvalde, Texas, committed by an 18-year-old man with a legally purchased assault rifle.
