At least four people have died after a gunman opened fire at a high school in Georgia, US. Police and paramedics rushed to the school and the area was put on “strict lockdown”. The suspect has now been arrested.
Local news reports suggest that several people were injured and at least one person was evacuated by air ambulance.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said it responded to a “shooting” at the high school.
“At approximately 10:23 p.m., officers from multiple law enforcement agencies and fire/EMS personnel were dispatched to the high school in reference to a reported shooting,” the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Students were evacuated from the scene of the shooting and many were seen gathering in a field near the school. The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the suspect was taken into custody.
A law enforcement source told CNN that the shooter at Apalachee High School may have been a 14-year-old boy. He also said it was not yet known whether the teen attended the school.
CNN has also confirmed that at least four people have died in today’s shooting incident. According to the report, apart from the four killed, more than a dozen people have been injured. It further said that not all the injuries were from gunshot wounds. Many people were injured while trying to hide or flee the scene.
Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia, sent a message to parents saying the school was “currently placed on strict lockdown due to reports of shots fired.”
The school is located in the city of Winder, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of the state capital, Atlanta.
#happening now Shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia. Reports of injuries heard. pic.twitter.com/t4xgv8Ibaq
— DAP (check blue here) (@Deetroit_Dave) September 4, 2024
“Our agents are on scene assisting local, state and federal law enforcement agencies with the investigation. A suspect is in custody,” the GBI said in a social media post.
“Law enforcement has arrived. Please do not attempt to approach the school at this time while officers work to secure the area,” it said.
ABC News quoted an eyewitness, student Sergio Caldera, as saying he was in chemistry class when he heard gunfire. Caldera, 17, told ABC that his teacher opened the door and another teacher ran in and told him to close the door “because there’s an active shooter.”
While students and teachers gathered in the room, someone knocked loudly on her classroom door and yelled several times for her to open it. When the knocking stopped, Caldeira heard more gunfire and screams. She said her class later moved to the school’s football field, Reuters reported.
“What we see behind us today is a bad thing,” Sheriff Jude Smith said during a brief news conference at the school campus.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on the social media website X that state agencies were responding to the incident.
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, “and his administration will continue to coordinate with federal, state, and local authorities as we learn more.”
There have been hundreds of shootings inside schools and colleges in the US in the past two decades, the deadliest of which was the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech that killed more than 30 people. The massacre has sparked a fierce debate over American gun laws and the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to “keep and bear arms”.
(Inputs from AFP and Reuters)
