Colt Gray: What we know about the 14-year-old school shooting suspect

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested after allegedly shooting dead two students and two teachers at a high school in the US.

A gunman opened fire at Apalachee High School in Georgia on Wednesday morning, leading dozens of police officers to swarm the campus as students and teachers rushed to an American football field for shelter.

Police have named the suspect, despite him being a minor, as Colt Gray.

Here’s what we know about the boy so far.

Gray is a student at Apalachee High School and was arrested at the scene of the shooting, according to Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey.

He said law enforcement officers and two school resource officers responded to reports of an active shooter within minutes.

One of the school officers confronted Gray and he surrendered immediately, Barrow County sheriff Jud Smith said, adding: “The shooter quickly realised that if he did not give up, it would end with an OIS [officer-involved shooting].”

The teen, who is currently in police custody, will be charged with murder and tried as an adult, the authorities said.

Sheriff Smith said a motive was unclear and that he did not know whether the victims were targeted or whether there was a connection between the gunman and the victims.

“I don’t know why it happened and we may never know,” he said.

The attack was carried out using an AR-style weapon – a lightweight semi-automatic rifle often associated with school shootings.

Gray had been investigated before

Gray was investigated by police over threats to carry out a similar attack last year, the FBI said in a statement on Wednesday.

They said they received several anonymous tips about someone using photos of guns online to make threats about committing a school shooting.

The FBI interviewed Gray, then 13, and his father, who stated he had hunting guns but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them.

Gray himself denied making the threats online and at the time there was no probable cause for arrest and no further action was taken, the statement said, adding that local schools were alerted “for continued monitoring of the subject”.

Authorities are now re-investigating the incident and any possible connection it may have to the most recent shooting.

After speaking about the FBI statement, Mr Hosey said: “We are also aware of some previous contacts that the Department of Family and Children Services had had with the suspect and his family, and we are pursuing that avenue as well.”

What we know about the victims

The four victims who died have been named as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspenwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53.

Christian was described as “a very good kid and very sweet and so caring” by his older sister, Lisette Angulo.

“He was so loved by many. His loss was so sudden and unexpected. We are truly heartbroken. He really didn’t deserve this,” she added.

Mr Aspenwall and Ms Irimie both taught maths, according to the school’s website, with the former also listed as a defensive coordinator for the football team.

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Nine other people, eight students and one teacher, were injured in the attack. Authorities said they were all expected to make a recovery.

‘I didn’t want to die that way’

Witnesses have been talking about the traumatic incident while the investigation continues.

Student 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 around 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 that when his class was led out, he saw officers shielding what appeared to be an injured student.

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

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.

Shirley Power spoke to Sky News’ US partner NBC News about learning of the shooting at her grandchild’s school from her daughter.

“My daughter called me at work screaming that there was a shooter at Apalachee and begged me to get there as quick as possible,” Ms Powers said.

She said the principal instructed her grandson to run to the band room.

“Start praying, for all the kids, not just my grandson,” she added.

Authorities were alerted to the attack due to a new alarm system that had only been implemented a week earlier.

Sheriff Jud Smith said: “All of our teachers are armed with a form of ID, this alarms us and alerts law enforcement officers after buttons are pressed on the ID.

“It alerts us there is an active situation at the school. We’ve had that about a week now.”

Police said that the actions of teachers saved a number of lives.

On Wednesday night, local council member Power Evans spoke to hundreds of community members at a vigil in a local park.

“Whether you have a student, whether you’re the mother or father of a student, brother or sister, whether you’re a teacher, an Apalachee teacher, this all affects us,” he said.

“We may be a county of 90,000 people, but we’re still a small community, and when one of us hurts, we all hurt.”

Apalachee High School, which had almost 1,900 students last year, began term on 1 August.

Authorities said they were still chasing down a number of leads and carrying out investigations.