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

Published

11 months ago

September 5, 2024

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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.

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.

World

‘Almost like a game of target practice’: British surgeon says IDF shooting Gazans at aid points

Published

3 hours ago

July 24, 2025

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'Almost like a game of target practice': British surgeon says IDF shooting Gazans at aid points

A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has told Sky News that there is “profound malnutrition” among the population – and claims IDF soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “like a game of target practice”.

Dr Nick Maynard spent four weeks working inside Nasser Hospital, where a lack of food has left medics struggling to treat children and toddlers.

The conditions inside the hospital, in the south of the Strip, have been documented in a Sky News report.

Dr Maynard told The World with Yalda Hakim: “I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage – and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed.

“There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital – and there will be many, many more deaths until the Israelis allow proper food to get in there.”

In other developments:

• Israel and the US have recalled their teams from Gaza ceasefire talks

• US envoy Steve Witkoff has accused Hamas “of failing to act in good faith”

• France has announced that it will recognise the state of Palestine

• An influential group of MPs is calling on the UK to “immediately” do the same

‘They were shells’

Dr Nick Maynard has been going to Gaza for the past 15 years – and this is his third visit to the territory since the war began.

The British surgeon added that virtually all of the kids in the paediatric unit of Nasser Hospital are being fed with sugar water.

“They’ve got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough,” he warned.

Dr Maynard said the lack of aid has also had a huge impact on his colleagues.

“I saw people I’d known for years and I didn’t recognise some of them,” he added. “Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they’re all hungry.

“They’re going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food.”

IDF ‘shooting Gazans at aid points’

Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Maynard claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “almost like a game of target practice”.

He has operated on boys as young as 11 who had been “shot at food distribution points” run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot,” he said.

“I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe.”

Dr Maynard continued: “What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days.

“One day they’d be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the abdomen.

“Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so.

“The clustering was far too obvious to be accidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice.

“I would never have believed this possible unless I’d witnessed this with my own eyes.”

Sky News has contacted the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.

An IDF spokesperson previously told Sky News it “strongly rejected” the accusations that its forces were instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians.

“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” the spokesperson said, adding that the incidents are “being examined by the relevant IDF authorities”.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been managing the supply of aid to Gaza since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in May.

It has four aid distribution sites, all of which are located in Israeli military zones, with journalists prohibited from entering.

More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the GHF took over, according to the UN.

UNRWA, its relief agency for Gaza, has heavily criticised the scheme.

Commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said: “The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill.”

Just a fraction of the aid trucks needed are making it into the enclave, the UN has said, while multiple aid groups and the World Health Organisation have warned Gazans are facing “mass starvation”.

Mr Lazzarini quoted a colleague on Thursday and said malnourished Palestinians in the Gaza “are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”.

World

Eleven civilians killed as Thailand and Cambodia exchange fire in escalating border dispute

Published

7 hours ago

July 24, 2025

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Eleven civilians killed as Thailand and Cambodia exchange fire in escalating border dispute

Eleven Thai civilians and a soldier have been killed in clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, officials have said, as long-standing tensions in disputed border areas boiled over into open conflict.

Among those killed was an eight-year-old boy, the army said in a statement.

It said most casualties occurred in Si Sa Ket province, where six people were killed after shots were fired at a fuel station.

Another 14 people have been injured in three Thai border provinces.

Thailand’s health minister Somsak Thepsuthin confirmed the fatalities to reporters, adding Cambodia’s actions, including an attack on a hospital, should be considered war crimes.

Both countries accuse one another of starting the military clashes and have downgraded their diplomatic relations in the rapidly escalating dispute. Thailand has also sealed all land border crossings with Cambodia.

Early on Thursday, a Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia, according to Thailand’s army.

“We have used air power against military targets as planned,” Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon said.

Cambodia’s defence ministry said Thai jets had dropped bombs on a road near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, saying it “strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia”.

What has caused Thailand-Cambodia border clashes?

‘Civilian areas targeted’

Clashes are ongoing in at least six areas along the border, the Thai defence ministry said.

Thailand’s foreign ministry said Cambodian troops fired “heavy artillery” on a Thai military base on Thursday morning and also targeted civilian areas, including a hospital.

“The Royal Thai Government is prepared to intensify our self-defence measures if Cambodia persists in its armed attack and violations upon Thailand’s sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement.

A livestream video from Thailand’s side showed people, including children and the elderly, running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker as explosions sounded.

The clash happened in an area where the ancient Prasat Ta Muen Thom temple stands along the border between Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.

‘Conflict not spreading’

Thailand’s acting premier said fighting must first stop before peace talks can start.

Caretaker Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters there had been no declaration of war and conflict was not spreading into more provinces.

He said Cambodia had fired heavy weapons into Thailand without any specific targets, resulting in civilian deaths.

Earlier on Thursday, Cambodia downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelled the Thai ambassador and recalled all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok.

The day before, its neighbour withdrew its ambassador and expelled the top Cambodian diplomat in protest after five Thai soldiers were wounded in a land mine blast, one of whom lost part of a leg.

A week earlier, a land mine in a different contested area exploded and wounded three Thai soldiers, including one who lost a foot.

Relations between the southeast Asian neighbours have collapsed after a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in a disputed border area in May.

Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation, and Thailand’s prime minister was suspended earlier this month as an investigation was opened into possible ethics violations over her handling of the border dispute.

Border disputes are longstanding issues that have caused periodic tensions between the countries. The most prominent and violent conflicts have been around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice recognised Cambodian sovereignty over the temple area.

World

Inside Gaza’s Nasser Hospital – where there’s virtually no food for malnourished children

Published

7 hours ago

July 24, 2025

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Inside Gaza's Nasser Hospital - where there's virtually no food for malnourished children

In Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, they have virtually nothing left to eat.

Warning: This article contains images that some readers may find distressing.

Huda has lost half her body weight since March, when Israel shut the crossings into Gaza, and imposed a blockade.

The 12-year-old girl knows she doesn’t look well.

“Before, I used to look like this,” Huda says, pointing to a picture on her tablet.

“The war changed me. Malnutrition has turned my hair yellow because I lack protein. You see here, this is how I was before the war.”

Her mother says her needs are simple: fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, maybe a little meat – but she won’t find it here.

Huda can only wish for a brighter future now.

“Can you help me travel abroad for treatment? I want to be like you. I’m a child. I want to play and be like you,” she says.

Amir’s story

Three-year-old Amir was sitting in a tent together with his mother, father and his grandparents when it was hit by projectiles.

Medical staff carried out surgery on his intestines and were able to stop the bleeding – but they can’t feed him properly.

Instead, he’s given dextrose, a mixture of sugar and water which has no nutritional value.

Amir’s mother and his siblings were all killed in the attack and his father is no longer able to speak.

“His father is in a terrible state and won’t accept the reality. What did these children do? Tell me, what was their crime?” Amir’s aunt says.

The desperate scenes of hungry children in Gaza have not been caused by scarcity.

There’s plenty of food waiting at the crossings or held in warehouses within the territory. Israel claims the United Nations is failing to distribute it.

Both Israel and the US have taken charge of the food distribution, with the UN’s hundreds of aid centres shut.

Instead, the UN tries to organise convoys but says it can’t obtain the necessary permits – and faces draconian restrictions on aid.

Sometimes food is made available at communal kitchens called ‘tikiya’.

‘I want life to be how it was’

Everyone is desperate for whatever they can get – and many leave with nothing.

“It’s been two months since we’ve eaten bread,” one young girl says. “There’s no food, there’s no nutrition. I want life to go back to how it was, I want meat and flour to come in. I want the end of the tikiya.”

Dr Adil Husain, an American doctor who spent two weeks at Nasser Hospital, treated a three-year-old called Hasan while he was there.

Weighing just 6kg, Hasan should be 15kg at his age.

“He needs special feeds, and these feeds are literally miles away. They’re literally right there at the border, but it’s being blockaded by the forces, they’re not letting them in, so it’s intentional and deliberate starvation,” Dr Husain tells me.