Politics

Four killed in Georgia high school shooting; 14-year-old suspect charged with murder

Published

2 years ago

November 12, 2024

Four killed in Georgia high school shooting; 14-year-old suspect charged with murder

Two students and two teachers were killed and nine others were injured in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia, authorities said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect is a 14-year-old student at the school who immediately surrendered after being confronted by school resource officers, said Chris Hosey, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The teen, identified as Colt Gray, will be prosecuted as an adult, he added. The suspect has been charged with four counts of felony murder with additional charges expected, the GBI said on Thursday.

The victims of the shooting have been identified as students Mason Schermerhorn, 14; and Christian Angulo, 14; and math teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39; and Christina Irimie, 53. Aspinwall was also a defensive coordinator for the school’s football team, NBC News reported.

In a news conference Wednesday night, officials said all nine people injured — eight students and one teacher — were hurt by gunfire in some capacity but are expected to recover.

The suspected shooter used “AR platform-style weapon,” Hosey said Wednesday. There’s no evidence of any additional shooters, he added. Investigators are working to determine if there are any active threats against other schools in Georgia, Hosey said.

On Thursday, the GBI announced the suspected shooter’s father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, was arrested in connection to the shooting and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.

“These charges stem from knowingly allowing his son … to possess a weapon,” Hosey said during a news conference on Thursday.

FBI investigated past threats

The FBI’s Atlanta field office and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office released a joint statement saying the suspect was interviewed by law enforcement in May 2023 over alleged online threats about a school shooting. The suspect’s father was also interviewed at the time, and told police that the child, then 13, did not have unsupervised access to his hunting rifles. Though school officials were notified, authorities at the time determined they had no probable cause to make an arrest or pursue the matter any further.

Officials have not commented on a potential motive. The suspected shooter had shown interest in prior mass shootings, including the 2018 shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told reporters that investigators have not determined how the suspect obtained a firearm.

The suspect will have his first court appearance on Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, the Georgia Department of Corrections told NBC News. He is expected to appear virtually from the Gainesville Youth Detention Center, where he is being held.

Students are evacuated at Apalachee High School in Georgia.Erin Clark / AP

Law enforcement officers and emergency services personnel responded to reports of an active shooting shortly before 10:30 a.m., the sheriff’s office said earlier.

About 1,800 students attend Apalachee High School in Barrow County, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. The school has been in session since Aug. 1, according to its student calendar. All county schools will be closed the rest of the week, the school system’s superintendent said Wednesday.

At the news conference Wednesday night, G e o rgia Go v. Brian Kemp said“This is everybody’s worst nightmare,” adding, “I just want to offer my sincere condolences and our thoughts and prayers to the families that have lost loved ones, for those that are injured continuing to fight through just a tragic time.”

Miguel Eduardo Perichi Orta, a 10th grader at Apalachee,”_blank”>spoke with NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta about the fear he felt during the shooting. He said his stomach dropped when the students were finally let out of the classroom and he saw blood and gunpowder on the ground.

“It was heartbreaking to see that,” he told WXIA.

He added: “If something like this can happen here, when you think it’s a normal day, it can happen anywhere, and that’s what really hurts.”

‘We have to end this epidemic of gun violence’

In a statement, President Joe Biden thanked the first responders and said that he and first lady Jill Biden are mourning the victims. The shooting, he said, is a “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,” added Biden, urging Republicans in Congress to work with Democrats “to pass common-sense gun safety legislation.”

At a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Wednesday afternoon, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris called the shooting a “senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies” and said: “We have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all.”

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.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, addressed the shooting in a post on Truth Socialwriting, “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”

At a scheduled news conference earlier in the day, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was “devastated for the families” of those affected by the shooting, adding that the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are working with state and local law enforcement officials.

Mass shootings, including in schools, are a uniquely American problem. So far in 2024, there have been more than 385 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archivewhich defines a mass shooting as having four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Politics

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

Published

22 hours ago

September 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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Politics

Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.

In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.

Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.

Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.

“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.

Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.

“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.

He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.

“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.

In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.

“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.

He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”

The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.

Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.

“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.

He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”

While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.

“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”

Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.

Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.

“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.

He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”

Politics

Missouri Supreme Court pauses GOP gerrymander, likely netting Democrats 1 House seat

Published

3 days ago

September 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.

The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.

Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.