Two students and two teachers killed in school shooting in Georgia – as 14-year-old suspect held

Published

1 year ago

September 4, 2024

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A 14-year-old suspect is in custody after a school shooting in the US state of Georgia, in which two students and two teachers were killed.

The shooting took place at Apalachee High School, situated in Winder in Barrow County – around 50 miles from the city of Atlanta.

The suspect is a 14-year-old student at the school, Chris Hosey, Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. He said the suspect would be tried as an adult.

Officers said they heard about the incident just before 9.30am local time, and responders from “multiple law enforcement agencies” were sent to the high school “in reference to a reported active shooting”.

The school was placed on lockdown, but this has now been cleared and pupils released to their families.

Dozens of police swarmed the campus and students rushed for shelter in the football stadium.

Local TV stations showed images of parents lining up in cars on a road outside the school, hoping to be reunited with their children.

Camille Nelms said she was shedding tears when a gunman opened fire on her classroom.

As bullets came flying into her classroom, the teacher and students tried to take shelter in the corner.

“I was crying, I didn’t want to die that way,” Nelms told NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta. “I don’t want to meet the Lord that way.”

Student Jacob King said he had dozed off in his world history class after morning football practice when he heard about 10 gunshots.

He said he did not believe the shooting was real until he heard an officer yelling at someone to put down their gun. He said when his class was led out, he saw officers shielding what appeared to be an injured student.

Ashley Enoh was at home on Wednesday morning when she got a text from her brother, who is a senior at Apalachee High.

The message said: “Just so you know, I love you.”

When she asked in the family group chat what was going on, he said there was a gunman at the school.

The shooting sparked a stampede, according to local media reports.

The Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith initially told reporters: “Multiple people were wounded in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder”.

He described the investigation as “very, very fluid” and it was in the early stages.

“What you see behind us is an evil thing today,” Sheriff Smith said.

“I want to give our sympathies to our community, our school system, our kids, our parents that had to witness this today.”

US President Joe Biden, who has been briefed on the incident, said in a statement he and his wife, Jill “are mourning the deaths” and 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.”

Mr Biden urged Republicans to work with Democrats to pass “common-sense gun safety legislation.”

As the incident unfolded, Governor Brian Kemp said: “I have directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state.”

Federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and ATF, are on the scene.

The shooting was the first “planned attack” of the new school year in the US, David Reidman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database, said.

Apalachee High School, which had an enrollment of nearly 1,900 last year, began classes on 1 August.

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‘I forgive him’: Charlie Kirk’s wife delivers tearful message – and one America needs to hear most

Published

12 hours ago

September 22, 2025

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'I forgive him': Charlie Kirk's wife delivers tearful message - and one America needs to hear most

“I forgive him.” They were three little words, and yet, they were huge.

In a stadium packed to capacity, Erika Kirk’s address to an assassin was delivered in tears and received with silence until the crowd grew into applause.

“The answer to hate is not hate,” she added. It is, perhaps, the message America needs to hear most and the one it has heard least.

As it happened: Trump delivers speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial

The memorial to Charlie Kirk felt like a Republican state funeral in all but name.

This was MAGA in mourning, an occasion that laid bare the influence of Charlie Kirk and his politics.

They had travelled in their tens of thousands to the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

They saluted a conservative icon and the dress code crafted a patriotic spectacle in red, white and blue.

It was an act of remembrance on a stadium scale, huge in size and sentiment. It was also big on politics.

From the president down, the Trump administration’s top tier spoke of politics after 10 September, the day Charlie Kirk was killed.

This was a Republican movement in one place, with one microphone, after an assassination that accelerated the tectonic shift in US politics.

A week and a half since the assassination, political reaction has distilled into a war over freedom of speech and that was revisited by the president, even if he reserved most of his speech to pay homage to Charlie Kirk.

The White House decanted a full team from Washington DC to Arizona.

They came for reasons of sympathy and bereavement, of course. It was also an occasion laced with politics.

This was Washington’s travelling roadshow swinging by the support that Charlie built.

The same support was critical in helping Donald Trump back into power at the last election, and the challenge confronting the White House is in harnessing that vote in his absence and carrying it forward.

Politically, it was a full-court press to style the horses amongst the youth vote and Christian nationalists.

Charlie Kirk brought them onside, and Team Trump wants to keep them there.

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Charlie Kirk ally claims ‘miracle’ stopped bullet killing anyone else

Published

1 day ago

September 21, 2025

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Charlie Kirk ally claims 'miracle' stopped bullet killing anyone else

The producer of Charlie Kirk’s podcast has claimed that a “miracle” stopped more people being killed by the bullet that hit the right-wing influencer.

Andrew Kolvet claimed to have spoken to a surgeon that tried to save Mr Kirk’s life, and posted on social media to discuss the apparent lack of an exit wound.

A prominent right-wing figure in the US, Mr Kirk was a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and was known for his conservative viewpoints on abortion, religion and LGBT issues.

The 31-year-old was shot dead while speaking at a university event in Utah last week.

Mr Trump and other public figures are expected to be in Arizona on Sunday for a memorial service for Mr Kirk which is expected to draw 100,000 people.

Mr Kolvet, executive producer of the Charlie Kirk Show, apologised for the “somewhat graphic” nature of his post on X.

In it, he discussed what he said was a lack of an exit wound from the bullet, despite it being “a high powered, high velocity round”.

Mr Kolvet included what he said were quotes from a surgeon who operated on Mr Kirk.

“It was an absolute miracle that someone else didn’t get killed,” Mr Kolvet quoted the surgeon as saying.

“His bone was so healthy and the density was so so impressive that he’s like the man of steel. It should have just gone through and through. It likely would have killed those standing behind him too.”

Mr Kolvet said what happened was “remarkable” and “miraculous”.

Memorial to draw 100,000 people

President Trump and JD Vance are expected to be among the prominent MAGA members who will pay tribute to Mr Kirk at the memorial event.

It will take place at State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals NFL team, amid a heavy law enforcement presence.

President Trump has blamed the “radical left” for the death of Mr Kirk, whom he credited for helping him win the 2024 presidential election.

It comes as the death of Mr Kirk has turned into a debate over the First Amendment.

While they have repeatedly criticised what they claim are assaults on free speech, members of the MAGA movement appear to be taking a different stance when the subject is one of their own, launching attacks on people they deem to be making disparaging comments about Mr Kirk.

Dozens of people, from journalists to teachers, have already lost their jobs for allegedly making offensive comments about the podcaster.

Late-night chat show host Jimmy Kimmel was pulled from the air indefinitely by ABC following a backlash from the Trump-appointed head of the Federal Communications Commission over the comedian’s remarks about Mr Kirk.

The State Department also has warned it would revoke the visas of any foreigners who celebrated his assassination.

US

Luigi Mangione’s lawyers call on judge to block the death penalty

Published

1 day ago

September 21, 2025

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Luigi Mangione's lawyers call on judge to block the death penalty

Lawyers for Luigi Mangione have called on a judge to block federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against him.

Mangione’s legal team says the 27-year-old’s case has been turned into a “Marvel movie” after a failed bid by the US Justice Department to indict him on terrorism charges over the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in New York on 4 December.

New York state judge Gregory Carro said there was no evidence that the killing, which took place as Mr Thompson walked into an investor conference at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel, amounted to a terrorist act.

But Judge Carro upheld second-degree murder charges, which suggest there was malicious intent – but not that it was premeditated.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi has called for Mangione to face capital punishment, describing the charges against him as a “premeditated cold-blooded assassination that shocked America”.

But in the new court filing, Mangione’s legal team argues federal prosecutors have “violated Mr Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights” by “staging a dehumanizing, unconstitutional ‘perp walk’ where he was televised, videotaped, and photographed clambering out of a helicopter in shackles” on the way to his first court appearance.

The legal team, led by former Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo, also claims the death penalty case has been “fatally prejudiced” after President Donald Trump commented on it on Fox News.

Despite laws that prohibit any pre-trial commentary that could prejudice the defendant’s right to a free trial, he told the network on Thursday: “Think about Mangione. He shot someone in the back, as clear as you’re looking at me or I’m looking at you.”

The defence team’s 114-page court filing reads: “There is a high bar to dismissing an indictment due to pretrial publicity.

“However, there has never been a situation remotely like this one where prejudice has been so great against a death-eligible defendant.”

Federal prosecutors have until 31 October to respond to the documents.

Mangione has pleaded not guilty to all the state charges against him, which cannot result in the death penalty and only life imprisonment, unlike federal ones. He has also pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

He is due back in court for a pre-trial hearing in the state case on 1 December and the federal case on 5 December.

The 27-year-old was arrested five days after Mr Thompson was killed – when he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, around 230 miles west of New York City.