Politics
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.
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, Georgia Gov. 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.
Democrats voted to make South Carolina their first presidential primary state for 2028 — a significant shift from past election cycles, and one that prioritizes a state with a significant Black voting bloc.
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted Friday to make the Palmetto State the first contest in the 2028 primary calendar.
The decision to choose South Carolina over Nevada, another historic early state in contention for first place, came down in part to concerns about Nevada’s ability to process election results quickly. Democrats said they were also looking to strengthen Black voting power in the South after the Supreme Court significantly restricted the Voting Rights Act earlier this year, which triggered redistricting efforts.
Michigan bested Iowa in the vote to be the Midwest’s early state, meaning Iowa will not be an early state in 2028 after leading the calendar for decades through 2020. New Hampshire, which has gone second on the nominating calendar in most past cycles, finished a distant third in voting to be Democrats’ first primary state.
Gas prices are high. Americans think they’re even higher.
Three in five Americans believe gas prices in their area have risen by more than they actually have, according to an analysis of new results from The Blue Light News Poll. It’s those perceptions that candidates will be running against this fall.
Voters’ anxieties about fuel prices could give Democrats a boost ahead of the midterms, further strengthening the Democratic voting base and putting strains on the MAGA coalition as the increasingly unpopular war in Iran drags on. A plurality of Americans — 46 percent — say the change in gas prices will impact how they plan to vote come November.
Most voters overestimated the change in gas prices in their area, according to the analysis of polling and granular pricing data provided by OPIS, a Dow Jones company that tracks gas prices. That includes majorities of voters who supported President Donald Trump and also those who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Roughly one in four Americans say gas in their local area has risen by $3.00 or more. But no zip code has actually seen that degree of change on average in the year and a half since Trump took office, as of early July.
Frustrations over cost of living could be reinforcing existing negative views of the Trump administration: Harris voters are far more likely to overshoot the cost jumps than Trump voters, making it harder for Republicans to peel off Democratic voters.
And the analysis shows a fracture among Trump voters. Self-identified MAGA Republicans were more likely to underestimate cost increases than non-MAGA Republicans — another crack in the president’s winning coalition as Republicans scramble to hold it together for the midterms.
“It is a particularly tough dance that many Republican candidates will have to endure for the next three months,” said Arizona GOP strategist Barrett Marson. “How do you feel the pain of your voters without feeling the wrath of Donald Trump?”
What’s more, American’s perceptions do not quickly change even when prices do. The Blue Light News Poll asked about gas prices in both May, when they were near their peak, and July, when they had dipped.
The results were the same in both.
“President Trump and his energy team anticipated these temporary market disruptions, communicated them openly to the American people, and implemented an aggressive plan to mitigate any impacts,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers. “As the U.S. military degrades the terrorist Iranian regime’s ability to attack commercial vessels and disrupt the free flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas prices will plummet back to pre-conflict levels.”
Gas prices could swing votes
Americans’ frustrations with prices and the economy overall are changing how they say they will vote in the fall.
Of the 46 percent of Americans who said gas prices will have an impact on their vote, just under 40 percent said they are considering voting for a different party than they normally would, including 49 percent of MAGA Republicans and 57 percent of non-MAGA Republicans.
“Three quarters of the country is confronting higher gas prices and feeling it,” said longtime Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. “That leaves them … very vulnerable to the economic pain and very vulnerable to the economic argument the Democrats are going to make.”
To better understand public perception of gas prices, The Blue Light News Poll asked Americans how the price of gas in their area had changed since Trump took office. Respondents could choose between buckets like “$1 to $2 higher per gallon,” “$1 to $2 lower per gallon,” or say prices had stayed roughly the same.
More than three-fourths said gas prices in their area have gone up.
Using OPIS data, Blue Light News compared each respondent’s answer against the actual average cost of regular gas in their zip code during the first week Trump was in office and the week prior to the July poll, which was conducted by the independent polling organization Public First from July 12 to July 15.
That comparison revealed the difference between the pain the American public is feeling and where actual gas prices stand — and, in particular, how that pain is expressed differently among Democrats and Republicans. Roughly 70 percent of Harris voters and 54 percent of Trump voters overestimated the increase in gas prices in their area, according to Blue Light News’s analysis.
“Democrats are highly motivated,” as a voting base, Marson said. “The longer the war goes on, probably the less motivated Republicans will be.”
The perception of higher gas prices is linked to how people see the economy — and who they blame for it.
Across the country, 57 percent of Americans say the cost of living is worse than they “can ever remember it being.” Those who overestimate gas price increases had more than twice the odds of agreeing with that statement, even after controlling for demographics and their 2024 vote.
Similarly, a plurality of Americans — 43 percent — blame Trump more than former President Joe Biden for the state of the economy overall. Those who overestimated their local increase in gas prices had nearly twice the odds of saying the same, compared with those who perceived the change in gas prices correctly or who underestimated the change.
It’s already affecting the battlegrounds
In the country’s most competitive races, Republicans will have to answer for the perceived cost pressures of rising gas prices more often than Democrats.
Thirteen of the most competitive districts have experienced gas price increases higher than the national average, according to Blue Light News’s analysis. Of those, nine are currently represented by Republicans.
In California’s 22nd District, where Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao will face off against progressive political newcomer Randy Villegas, average prices across the district had gone up $1.17 by early July — the third highest increase of any district, according to Blue Light News’s analysis.
Villegas said in an interview that he thought frustration over gas prices would mobilize turnout in the fall, driven by how the cost of gas is “tied to every other thing.”
“It’s the cost of gas when you’re driving to the grocery store, when you’re driving to, you know, see a doctor,” he said. Or, the cost of gas when driving 7 to 8 hours away to “go get cheaper health care.”
Valadao did not respond to requests for comment.
In Colorado’s 8th District, where gas prices have risen by $0.73 on average since Trump took office, Republican incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans blamed local Democratic policies for increased costs more than the Iran war.
While “what’s happening halfway around the globe has some impact on global energy prices,” Evans said, high gas prices in the district are “a direct result of the local economic policies — the anti-energy policies — of the state Democrats who run the state of Colorado.”
But The Blue Light News Poll results from this month show voters don’t necessarily feel the same. Roughly 63 percent of Americans selected “the war with Iran” as the primary reason why gas prices have increased since Trump took office, including 59 percent of Trump voters and 70 percent of Harris voters.
By the middle of May, the average price of gas across the country reached its highest point of the Trump administration to date: $4.50 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In July, average prices dipped to $3.78 per gallon, the lowest average price since March.
Still, in both months, more than 75 percent of Americans said gas prices had gone up, Blue Light News’s polls show. And in both months, roughly 23 percent said prices had gone up by $3.00 or more.
This week, Trump said the upcoming midterms would not impact how he goes about fighting the war with Iran. “I can’t think about that having to do with this,” he said, referring to the elections. “I think people are very impressed.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been frank about the rocky road the reconciliation effort faces and careful not to guarantee he’ll be successful…
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