As soon as the shooting died down, teachers quickly evacuated the children to the football field next to the school.
Photo: REUTERS.
The murder of two teachers and two students by a 14-year-old student at the Appalachian School in Winder, Georgia, was the fourth “school shooting” in the United States since the beginning of the year. In each of them, four people were killed. This time, in addition to the four dead, nine wounded were also taken to hospitals.
It is surprising that the future killer was on the FBI’s radar for over a year. In May 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received anonymous reports of threats to shoot up a school. They were accompanied by photographs of weapons.
The anonymous search led to Colt Gray, then 13. The local sheriff questioned both him and the teen’s father.
The father of the future criminal assured the sheriff that the hunting weapon was locked in the house and that the student did not have access to it. That story did not end with anything for Colt: Gray was scolded, the educational institution was warned to keep a closer eye on him.
After the shooting, the killer surrendered to police and left his AR-15 automatic rifle on the ground as soon as law enforcement officers arrived at the crime scene.
Students at Appalachian High School say they initially mistook what was happening for a drill. In the United States, children have long been trained to act in case of another attempted mass shooting by one of their mentally challenged students or graduates.
However, as soon as the alarm was sounded, the classroom doors were closed, saving dozens of lives. The children, at the call of their teachers, retreated to those corners of the classrooms inaccessible to gunfire from outside.
Unable to break into the classroom, the criminal simply killed everyone who stood in his way. As soon as the shooting died down, the teachers quickly evacuated the children to the football field next to the school. The lives of the nine injured, according to doctors, are out of danger.
Classmates say Colt Gray was a “quiet teenager” who had little communication even with his deskmate. It’s unclear what drove the 14-year-old villain to commit the crime.
The three leading US politicians (President Joe Biden, his “vice president” Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump) came out with routine statements about their sadness and their “prayers for the victims.” The only difference was that Biden and Harris pointed out the danger of uncontrolled arms sales to countries. Trump, who has the support of the arms lobby, merely said that “his heart is with the victims.”
It’s scary, but medical statistics have confirmed that gunshot wounds are one of the most common causes of death among American teenagers, the New York Times reported.
