The suspect in a recent shooting at a Georgia high school was interviewed last year about past threats, the FBI said Wednesday.
“In May 2023, the FBI's National Threat Countermeasures Center received several anonymous tips regarding online threats to carry out a school shooting at an unconfirmed location and time,” the FBI field office in Atlanta said. stated in the post Wednesday on the social media platform X. “The online threats included photos of a gun.”
“Within 24 hours, the FBI determined that the online postings had originated in Georgia, and the FBI's Atlanta field office notified the Jackson County Sheriff's Office and asked them to take action,” the bureau added.
The FBI field office reported that the local sheriff's office found “a 13-year-old male who may be a possible suspect” and “interviewed him.”
“The Jackson County Sheriff's Office located a 13-year-old male who may be the suspect and interviewed him and the father,” the office continued. “The father stated that he has hunting guns in the home, but the suspect did not have unsupervised access to them. The suspect denied making the online threats. Jackson County has notified local schools and asked them to continue monitoring the suspect.”
In a follow-up post, the FBI Clarified The juvenile in custody was identified as the same person involved in the Apalachee High School shooting that left two students and two teachers dead.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Director Chris Hosey confirmed the deaths at a press conference on Wednesday, adding that nine more people were “transported to local hospitals with various injuries.”
Hosey identified the suspect as Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student at a high school about an hour outside of Atlanta.
President Biden A statement was issued Responding to the news, the government said “we cannot continue to accept this as normal”.
“Jill and I mourn the losses of those whose lives have been taken by senseless gun violence and our thoughts are with the survivors whose lives have been changed forever. What was meant to be a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, turned into a horrific demonstration of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart,” he wrote. “Students across the country are learning how to hunker down and hide, not how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as the norm.”
“We are working closely with officials at the federal, state and local levels, and we are grateful to the first responders who detained the suspect and prevented further loss of life,” Biden added, renewing his call for Congress to enact gun control legislation.
Vice President Harris also took time out during a rally in New Hampshire on Wednesday to speak about the shooting, which she called a “senseless tragedy,” adding that “we must end our nation's epidemic of gun violence for good.”
