GA - Apalachee High School shooting, 4 dead, 9 injured, Winder, Barrow County - 04 September 2024 *father and son arrested*

[Dotta]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1831700782141284728

 

[shotgun09]

I wonder if the school had prior knowledge of the FBI's contact with Colt and family?

I highly doubt the school had any knowledge of CG's history.
It seems that the FBI did their duty, turfed it to the locals and shut the door. The information was siloed/ compartmentalized. The juvenile laws and protections are so secret it might have been considered illegal to share the info with the school. What a quagmire. We have reported suspicions that end up to be valid, and yet nothing is done.

Makes me wonder how many others are "on the list". To be watched by 'someone else..not me' .

 

[ChatteringBirds]

There have always been massively troubled families, parents, and teenagers. Some of the teens go on to lead decent lives. I don't want to "feel sorry for" those who commit evil instead.

Think about the children now growing up without their parent and the parents now planning funerals for their children.

The shooter was massively failed. But he also knew what he was doing. His parents knew what they were choosing, too.

 

[Betty P]

I highly doubt the school had any knowledge of CG's history.
It seems that the FBI did their duty, turfed it to the locals and shut the door. The information was siloed/ compartmentalized. The juvenile laws and protections are so secret it might have been considered illegal to share the info with the school. What a quagmire. We have reported suspicions that end up to be valid, and yet nothing is done.

Makes me wonder how many others are "on the list". To be watched by 'someone else..not me' .

Since the FBI themselves are often targets of these kind of threats, they probably take it very seriously. That said, their hands are tied by local and state laws that prevent them from doing much. Very likely they reported it to local LE.

 

[m00c0w]

I highly doubt the school had any knowledge of CG's history.
It seems that the FBI did their duty, turfed it to the locals and shut the door. The information was siloed/ compartmentalized. The juvenile laws and protections are so secret it might have been considered illegal to share the info with the school. What a quagmire. We have reported suspicions that end up to be valid, and yet nothing is done.

Makes me wonder how many others are "on the list". To be watched by 'someone else..not me' .

A big point here will be when the dad got the AR-15. If it was after the interviews, that would give credence as to why the local SO wrote it off as unfounded.

As far as FBI doing anything, their hands are basically tied without evidence of a federal crime. That would be why they passed it on to local law enforcement.

JMO

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The Gun Violence Archive said that in Georgia schools since 2022, there have been:

• 97 gun incidents
• Five gun fatalities
• 17 gun injuries
• 72 arrests for gun incidents

No bond for son, dad in school shooting; more charges ahead

The 14-year-old suspect in a shooting at a Georgia high school that killed four people and his father will both stay in custody following back-to-back court hearings.

www.wrdw.com

 

[mickey2942]

And then, there are all of the guns found on students that don't turn into massacres. In this case, it was not an actual firearm.

Missoula Police provide update on Hellgate High School lockdown

A Tuesday morning lockdown at Hellgate High School was sparked by a student having what turned out to be a "replica firearm."

www.kpax.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Heightened security at multiple school districts after social media threat

There will be heightened security at several Greater Cincinnati schools after a social media threat was made online. One district canceled classes altogether.

www.wcpo.com

Several Cincinnati-area schools named in online threats, Mount Healthy schools closed

Mount Healthy City Schools was closed Thursday and at least four other districts heightened security in response to a social media threat.

www.cincinnati.com

Alabama schools cancel class, increase security after Georgia school shooting

One district sent all students and teachers home after receiving a threat.

www.al.com

Authorities: 12-year-old South Carolina boy charged after claiming he could 'shoot up the school'

It happened the same day as the deadly high school shooting in Winder, Ga.

www.wjcl.com

11-year-old charged with making false bomb threat at Deerfield Beach school appears in court - WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale

DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - An 11-year-old who, deputies said, made a false bomb threat at a school in Deerfield Beach appeared in before a<a class="excerpt-read-more"...

wsvn.com

Law enforcement, Enterprise City Schools holds press conference after lockdown

Enterprise High School and Enterprise Career & Technology Center are both on lockdown until further notice.

www.wtvy.com

Police: 15-year-old student arrested after threatening to shoot people at Brennan H.S. in West Babylon

According to police, a 911 caller reported the student made that threat during an online chat involving other students from the school.

longisland.news12.com

https://www.kark.com/news/local-news/homer-adkins-elementary-school-placed-on-lockdown-after-police-respond-to-nearby-home/

South Florida School Evacuated Following Bomb Threat On Wednesday | NewsRadio WFLA | Florida News

A bomb threat forced the evacuation of students and staff from Summerset Key Academy Middle/High School on Wednesday morning.

wflanews.iheart.com

Pleasant Valley schools go remote as police investigate threat (UPDATE)

The Pleasant Valley School District in Monroe County announced a remote instruction day Thursday, as Pennsylvania State Police said they were investigating a threat at the high school.

www.lehighvalleylive.com

Sachem North, Brennan High School, Salk Middle School see security incidents as school resumes on Long Island

Two Sachem North High students were arrested after one allegedly displayed a knife at a bus stop; a Brennan High student was accused of making a threat; and a Salk Middle School student allegedly brought a bullet into the building

www.newsday.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The report states there was “inconsistent information” in the tip. IP addresses show the Discord account was used in Fort Valley and Statesboro, but also in Buffalo, NY and northern Virginia. The Discord account name was also in Russian, and the phone number on the account was listed as a LaGrange phone number.

A translation of the Russian letters spelled out “Lanza,” which investigators believed referred to Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter.

A deputy spoke to Gray and his father once again. Gray told authorities he stopped using his Discord account because “too many people kept hacking his account and he was afraid someone would use his information for nefarious purposes.”

The father and son also told the deputy they did not know the email address or speak Russian.

“At this time, due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI, the allegation that Colt or (his father) is the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be substantiated,” the report states.

Incident report sheds light on 2023 alleged threat incident involving Apalachee High shooting suspect

An incident report is shedding light on a 2023 suspected threat incident the 14-year-old suspect in the Wednesday Apalachee High School shooting was believed to be involved in.

www.atlantanewsfirst.com

 

[Chimera]

It's our reluctance to be "judgmental" that gets us in trouble.

This kid was primed to fail and gave off all the warning signs we are ever going to get and he still couldn't be stopped.

If you can't prevent a school shooting where the FBI has visited the perps house a year before, he never attends school, has pervasive access to guns and no support structure at home- its never going to be prevented ever.

Bbm.
Re. the bolded :
Am curious if this truancy went on for several years before now -- and how it was dealt with ?
Omo.

 

[sds71]

The suspected shooter was a brand new student, and yesterday was his first "real day" of class, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.

“He was a brand new student to Barrow County Schools, he had enrolled about two weeks prior. This was his second day at school. He had been before, he left early, on that day and this was his first real full day,” Smith said referring to the shooting yesterday. Aug. 1 was the first day of school for the district.

Prior, the suspect had been at a local middle school, Smith said. According to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office incident report from 2023, Colt Gray had previously attended Jefferson Middle School and prior to that West Jackson Middle School…

When asked if the shooting was preventable, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said it's hard to say.

The 14-year-old suspect had been investigated following an FBI tip regarding a potential threat to shoot up a middle school last year.

“I feel confident that the FBI, the system worked,” Smith said Thursday.

“They notified local authorities, local authorities went to the house, interviewed him, interviewed his father, they did a report, they did what they were supposed to do, and found that there was no probable cause,” he continued. “Regardless of the situation, all of us have civil rights. He didn’t commit a crime. ... It was unfounded at the time, and so can anything be preventable? I don’t know. It’s hard to say.”

 

[Leopard]

“I feel confident that the FBI, the system worked,” Smith said Thursday.

I'd hate to see a case where the FBI and system didn't work in Smith's opinion. I understand what he's getting at, that when CG came on their radar, there was nothing to prove he would become a mass shooter. I also have to wonder if the FBI making it clear they took CG seriously at such a young age had any effect on CG deciding to carry out his plans.

 

[Sundog]

When the FBI announced that the 14 year old shooter would be tried as an adult for murder, I wondered if there would need to be a Juvenile Court hearing prior to this decision being made, as is required in some jurisdictions. However, I found online that according to Georgia law, there is no hearing for a juvenile who commits a crime that is punishable by life in prison, there is a direct transfer of charges (not discretionary) to adult court.

The juvenile and superior courts have concurrent jurisdiction over cases involving juveniles of any age accused of crimes punishable by death or life imprisonment, except for certain designated crimes placed under the exclusive jurisdiction of the superior court.

Georgia's Transfer Laws

 

[seasideForest]

Our county school does shut down during all threats. In all cases the student is identified, 100% of the time arrested, permanent suspension and provided free online school offered by our state Dept of Education.

We had several incidents several years ago. Once the school board make the decision to arrest and prosecute, not only the student but the parent, we've not had incident several years. Knock on wood.

Moo

BBM
Good result! I'm genuinely happy about it for you and your school. Knock on wood that there are no more incidents.

 

[statt#1]

I must opine once again. Public schools, including the one involved in this case, most often have quite extensive counseling departments, offering services beyond what many might imagine, including referral for outside counseling, access to local resources, suicide and bullying prevention initiatives, dedicated teams that meet regularly and discuss student concerns, crisis response plans, coordinated training and drills with local law enforcement, I mean, this list goes on and on. These school professionals go through years of education, and hours and hours of ongoing training, every year, all focused on school safety.

More likely than not, local psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors in the community have close relationships with school counselors, Local social agencies, local police, probation, probably even other community organizations, for food/housing/job placement, chamber of commerce, fire company, boards and committees at the local hospital, all these resources interact with the school at some level. The scope of initiatives dedicated to school safety is HUGE.

This student who did this, I opine that he was well known to the school counseling department, with a thicker file than the average student. I'll wager this young man and his family likely had every possible counseling alternative presented and offered to him, probably more than once, and likely over the course of years.

Two things. One, a family must approve of the counseling process for most students, and more importantly, the student themselves must approve, and be willing to engage...barring an involuntary commitment to an inpatient facility.

The final thought I have is this. And yes, these events do anger me, because I've actually worked this field, it was my career. I've taken weapons off of students, was involved in searches, had relationships with all the aforementioned community folks in this post as a result of my position in a public school. I've trained, and been trained, drills, lockdowns, sweeps, codes, theories on how to react, threat assessments, teams, committees, the whole gamut. I've dealt with guns, knives, drugs, fights, suicide....the whole mess. Now retired, and off duty

So, if a person wants a secure building, here's my opinion...go to one, enter, see what occurs when you enter, and put those procedures in place at the school. Try the local courthouse, or go through TSA at the airport....being certain to notice the armed persons standing about, those are secure procedures. Otherwise, any student, any time, any day, can bring any thing, to school.

 

[wendybtn]

I highly doubt the school had any knowledge of CG's history.
It seems that the FBI did their duty, turfed it to the locals and shut the door. The information was siloed/ compartmentalized. The juvenile laws and protections are so secret it might have been considered illegal to share the info with the school. What a quagmire. We have reported suspicions that end up to be valid, and yet nothing is done.

Makes me wonder how many others are "on the list". To be watched by 'someone else..not me' .

Yes, I think the FBI told the local school system in the other county and washed their hands of it. With all the resources of the federal government and threatening a school disturbance being a federal crime, they don't follow-up or keep any tabs after that? That is not responsible law enforcement in my book.

 

[seasideForest]

In California, where I teach, a school will go into a form of lockdown where each classroom is locked, no students can leave their classrooms without an adult chaperone (i.e. bathroom, etc). While this will not help the class that has the person with the gun if that person decides to follow through on their threat (and if the threat was viable), it does minimize/isolate the damage. I believe if the internal lockdown continues for a certain amount of time, an early release is called. We have had several "prank" threats in our area, and this is what has happened. Often, once families get word, they start picking their children up early. There was a HUGE issue when there was a viable threat, but LE asked the school to hold off so they could search the student's home and arrest them off campus. Families were very angry because their children went to school that day. The threat was discovered the night before, and LE wanted the school day to do their investigative work.

Thanks for your detailed explanation.
There was a prank threat where I live, not in the US, iirc for the whole state, pop. approx 11 million. idk how many schools but an awful lot. iirc schools were allowed to decide for themselves whether to stay open that day or not. So I was thinking of that kind of prank rather than lockdown within a particular school due to a threat already showing itself. I don't know enough about the situation in general in the US, so I will just read along and keep my possibly wrong ideas to myself.

 

[Sundog]

The Washington Post has an article stating that the 14 year old shooter "begged for help" for his mental health issues, according to his aunt.

Will this be similar to the Ethan Crumbley case, where cries for help were unheeded by the family?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/09/05/suspected-shooter-georgia-school-shooting-apalachee-high/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3eee88f%2F66d9e099be87305a01e4732d%2F596cbfca9bbc0f208664aefd%2F8%2F55%2F66d9e099be87305a01e4732d

edited to add link

 

[StarryStarryNight]

How did he get an AR-15 into the school?
He didn’t walk in with it that morning. Did he stash it outside somewhere and went and got it?

 

[OddOneOut]

How did he get an AR-15 into the school?
He didn’t walk in with it that morning. Did he stash it outside somewhere and went and got it?

Also, where did he get it? It seems obvious that he got it from home but has LE said that? He could have gotten it from another relative, friend, bought it illegally, stolen it, etc?

Did he bring it on the school bus with him?