Who is Colt Gray? 14-year-old charged in deadly Georgia School shooting that killed four

A 14-year-old boy opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others.

This incident marks the first mass shooting at a US school since the start of the academic year.

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As reported by Reuters, the suspect, who had previously been questioned by law enforcement last year due to online threats about a potential school shooting, was apprehended shortly after the incident, according to investigators.

Who is Colt Gray?

The shooter has been identified as Colt Gray, 14, and will be charged and tried as an adult, according to Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, during a press conference.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said the gunman, armed with an “AR platform style weapon,” or semiautomatic rifle, was quickly confronted by deputies assigned to the school and that the suspect immediately got on the ground and surrendered.

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Once under arrest, the suspect spoke with investigators, who believed he was acting alone, but they declined to say if they knew what motivated him.

Officials identified those killed as two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53. All nine of those hospitalised are expected to recover, Smith told reporters.

"Pure evil did what happened today," Smith said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation later disclosed that it had investigated online threats of a school shooting in 2023. Local law enforcement had interviewed a 13-year-old and his father in nearby Jackson County regarding these threats. While the FBI's statement did not name the teen, Georgia officials confirmed that it was related to the suspect currently in custody.

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“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them. The subject denied making the threats online. Jackson County alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject,” the FBI said, adding that there was no probable cause to make an arrest, Reuters reported.

The shooting revived both the national debate about gun control and the outpouring of grief that follows in a country where such outbursts occur with some regularity.

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The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting “and his administration will continue coordinating with federal, state, and local officials as we receive more information.”

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In the past two decades, the US has experienced hundreds of school and college shootings, with the deadliest occurring at Virginia Tech in 2007, where over 30 people were killed. This ongoing violence has intensified the debate over gun laws and the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees the right “to keep and bear arms.”

(With inputs from Reuters)