A 14-year-old student in Georgia has been charged with making terroristic threats against a school, hours after a deadly shooting at nearby Apalachee High School, police said Thursday.
Gainesville police said the unidentified juvenile is being held at the Regional Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of terroristic threats and disrupting the operation of a public school.
Police officials said they learned of the disturbing threats circulating online late Wednesday.
Gainesville is just 25 miles from Winder, where a shooting occurred Wednesday morning at Apalachee High School, leaving two teachers and two students shot and killed.
“Following the recent tragedy in neighboring Barrow County, many jurisdictions are responding to hoaxes and false information being spread,” Gainesville police said.
The Gainesville threat was determined to be unrelated to the Apalachee shooting.
“Our primary goal is to ensure the safety and health of our students, faculty and staff,” Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parrish said.
“We are heartbroken by the heinous attack at nearby Apalachee High School. Whether fabricated or not, we vigorously investigate all threats or possible actions against our schools and students.”
The suspect in the Apalachee shooting was identified as 14-year-old student Colt Gray, who turned himself in to school security at the scene and was arrested.
He will be charged as an adult in the deaths of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimy, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo.
His initial court appearance is scheduled for Friday.
Horrifying video taken in the aftermath of the shooting showed traumatized students fleeing through the school's hallways, with the gunman's discarded weapon still on the floor.
As the students passed by, they saw a body lying nearby, covered in a bloodstained white sheet.
The exact make of the gun is still unknown, but authorities confirmed that an AR-type weapon was used in the morning shooting.
Gray was under investigation by the FBI for making online school shooting threats last year, the FBI confirmed.
Gray's father told authorities there were hunting weapons in the home but claimed his son, who was 13 at the time, never had access to them unsupervised.
The motive for Wednesday's attack remains under investigation.
