A CLASSMATE of suspected school shooter Colt Gray has revealed the moment he was stopped from opening fire on them before he turned on others.
The 14-year-old allegedly attacked his teachers and fellow students at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia, at 10:20 am on Wednesday with an AR-15 rifle.
Two teachers and two students died in the shooting and nine others were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Now, Gray’s classmate who was sitting next to him moments before he fled their algebra class to allegedly carry out the attack has revealed how he tried to target her class before turning on others.
Lyela Sayarath told CNN how Gray left the classroom around 9:45 am before trying to get back in about 30 minutes later but the door was automatically locked.
Sayarath described how a classmate went to let him in before suddenly stopping after noticing he was armed.
What we know so far…
She “saw that he had a gun, so she backed away,” Sayarath said.
“I guess he saw we weren’t going to let him in.”
The teenager detailed how Gray then entered the next-door classroom and unleashed a barrage of rounds as Sayareth and her classmates barricaded themselves in and hid behind desks.
“He turned to the classroom that would have been to my right, and he just starts to shoot, and you hear about 10 to 15 rounds back-to-back,” she said.
A friend in the classroom being targeted by the gunman was “pretty shaken up” and “looked horrified” after getting blood on him and seeing someone get shot, she added.
Fellow student Janice Martinez told CNN how she had initially thought people were messing around when she heard screaming from another classroom.
“It was like during the middle of [class], and I heard screaming and everything,” she said, and thought people were “playing around in the hallways or something.”
“I thought it was like someone just yelling or something. So I didn’t think much of it,” she explained.
“[Then] the noise kept getting louder and louder, and I was like, ‘No, no, guys.’ Like, I told everybody to get down. Get down, because, like, you don’t joke around with that.”
As it emerged that he had been known to the FBI for a year before the shooting, Sayarath said that she “wasn’t surprised” that Gray who was quiet and shy was identified as the suspect in the shooting.
“When you think of shooters and the way they act, it’s usually the quiet kid and he was the one that fit that description,” she said.
On Wednesday the FBI detailed how it had held interviews with Gray and his father in May last year after receiving “several anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time.”
“The online threats contained photographs of guns,” a joint statement from the FBI Atlanta and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office read.
The FBI found that the post came from Georgia and an interview with Gray’s father revealed that hunting guns are kept in the home but that his son “did not have unsupervised access to them.”
While Gray, who was then 13 denied making the online threats, he was identified as a suspect and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office continually monitored the teen.
Officials from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation named Gray as the suspect in the school shooting on Wednesday and confirmed the identities of his four victims.
It was like during the middle of [class], and I heard screaming and everything.
Janice Martinez
Students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angelo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, were named in a press conference as those who died in the shooting.
Schermerhorn’s family had taken to social media in the immediate aftermath of the shooting to get help finding the teenager who had autism and had only just joined the school.
“If he is escalated, PLEASE use a calm voice with him,” family members wrote in a desperate plea on social media.
“Let him know his mom is looking for him for reassurance.”
After learning of his death the family confirmed the news and criticized gun violence saying it’s “sad we can’t even send our babies to school and them be safe.”
Another family member apologized to the teen saying “America failed you,” as they urged other parents “hug your children.”
Aspinwall was a math teacher at the school as well as a defensive coordinator after being hired last year.
The track and field coach had desperately tried to shield his students and get them to safety when he was gunned down in the doorway of the classroom.
“It’s no shock he died protecting the students at Apalachee. Praying so hard for his family and everyone who knew him,” an ex-student of Aspinwall’s wrote on Facebook.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigations revealed that Gray has been charged with murder and will be tried as an adult.
He had surrendered quickly to cops after authorities arrived on the scene about 10 minutes after the shooting started.
Barrow County Sheriff Judd Smith confirmed in a press conference that no motive for the shooting has yet been identified but that Gray was cooperating with officials.
“What you see behind us is an evil thing,” he said before confirming that the nine other victims of the attack are expected to recover.
One of those injured, special education teacher David Phenix was shot in the hip and in the foot and required surgery and is in a stable condition.
Meanwhile, a heartbreaking text message has been revealed from a student to his mom after being caught up in the shooting.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have spoken out about the shooting calling for an end to the “gun violence epidemic.”
President Joe Biden has released a statement about the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia on Wednesday morning.
“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” Biden said.
“What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.
“Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.
“We are closely coordinating with officials at the federal, state and local level, and are grateful for the first responders who brought the suspect into custody and prevented further loss of life,” he continued.
“Ending this gun violence epidemic is personal to me. It’s why I signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – the most meaningful gun safety bill in decades – and have announced dozens of gun safety executive actions.
“I also established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Harris. We’ve made significant progress, but this crisis requires even more.
“After decades of inaction, Republicans in Congress must finally say ‘enough is enough’ and work with Democrats to pass common-sense gun safety legislation.
“We must ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines once again, require safe storage of firearms, enact universal background checks, and end immunity for gun manufacturers.
“These measures will not bring those who were tragically killed today back, but it will help prevent more tragic gun violence from ripping more families apart.”
