A crazed 14-year-old gunman rampaged through a suburban Georgia high school on Wednesday morning, committing a horrifying mass shooting at the start of the school year that left two students and two teachers dead.
Nine other people at Apalachee High School in Winder – about an hour outside of Atlanta — were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, including a math teacher who was left with a shattered hip. At least two victims were airlifted to a hospital.
One terrified survivor described how the gunman stopped and pounded on his barricaded classroom door and demanded “Open up!” before moving on.
Other students texted their parents and begged for help, telling them they loved them and that they were scared for their lives.
The suspected gunman — identified as Colt Gray, a student at the school – surrendered immediately after a school resource officer rushed in and confronted him — just minutes after the first shots were fired around 10:20 a.m., Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said.
Gray was unharmed, and will be charged with murder as an adult, Horsey added.
“My heart hurts for these kids, my heart hurts for our community, but I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.
“I want that to be very clear and known,” he added. “Love will prevail over what happened today.”
Police have been interviewing Gray, and are also in touch with his family.
His motivations for the attack remain unclear, as it seemed he had no prior connection to the victims.
“None that I’m aware of,” Barrow County Sheriff Smith responded when asked.
The shooting left students terrified and ducking for cover in locked-down classes, and one sending off desperate messages to his parents.
“School shooting RN … I’m scared … I’m not joking,” Apalachee senior Ethan Clark texted his mother, Erin Clark at 10:23 a.m., according to a post on her Facebook.
“I love you.” the boy told him as his mother.
“Love you too baby,” she responded as she told him she was leaving work and rushing to get him.
When she asked where he was, he responded: “Class. Someone’s dead.”
When she got to the school she eventually found Ethan with his evacuated classmates and learned that he had been writing an essay when the shooting began. He quickly worked with another student to barricade the doors.
“I’m so proud of him for doing that,” Clark said. “He was so brave.”
Another boy, 14-year-old Marques Coleman, said he was in one of the classrooms where the shooter opened fire.
He recalled the classroom filling with smoke and wounded friends splayed across the room after the shooter left, including one who he said was bleeding badly from the stomach.
“God had his hands around me,” he told WPRI.
Seventeen-year-old Apalachee senior Sergio Caldera told ABC News that he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots.
“My teacher goes and opens the door to see what’s going on. Another teacher comes running in and tells he
