The FBI claims it did not directly investigate the suspect in the tragic high school shooting that took place in Georgia this week.
The student shooter who allegedly carried out the shooting at Apalachee High School on Wednesday was the subject of an anonymous tip to the FBI in 2023 about online threats, including a group chat on the messaging app Discord where he “may have threatened to shoot up the middle school.”
Fox News Digital spoke with an FBI representative in Atlanta, who said the agency has not questioned the suspect or visited his home. Instead, the FBI provided the anonymous tip to the Jackson County Sheriff.
Local deputies from the sheriff's office conducted further investigation and interviewed the suspect's father, but the report stated they were unable to substantiate the threat.
A gun was displayed on video taken inside Apalachee High School, and an evacuation order was issued.
People rally at Jug Tavern Park following the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. (Reuters/Elijah Nouvellaj)
During the investigation, the suspect “expressed concern that someone was accusing him of threatening to shoot up the school and stated that he would never say such a thing, even as a joke,” according to the interview report.
Officers investigating the anonymous tip found that the information sent to the FBI was sent through various IP addresses around the world, including Palmdale, Calif., Los Angeles, Calif., and Cockburn, Australia. They also identified email addresses and phone numbers related to the case, as well as user profiles linked to the threats.
The profile name, written in Russian, referred to the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Georgia high school shooting: Authorities identify two teachers, two students as murder victims
A screenshot from a video showing the firearm allegedly used in the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. (Alexandra Romero/Joel Romero via Storyful)
“[The Apalachee suspect] He reportedly said he stopped using Discord because too many people kept hacking his account and he feared someone would use his information for nefarious purposes.
“At this time, due to inconsistent information the FBI has received, [the Apalachee shooting suspect or his father] “It cannot be established who the user of the Discord account who made the threats was,” investigators wrote in 2023. “This case will be resolved on an exceptional basis.”
An FBI source told Fox News Digital that if there is no immediate threat to life, it is common practice to call local police, provide them with information and allow them to investigate the call.
“Once you get a warning, there's only so much you can do,” former FBI agent Rob D'Amico told “Fox & Friends First” on Thursday.
Georgia school shooting investigators looking at 14-year-old suspect's internet history, past: expert
A car parked on the side of the road as officers investigate the scene of a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. (Reuters/Elijah Nouvellaj)
“Local police officers attended the scene and interviewed the father and son, who denied making the online threats,” Judge Amico continued. “The father stated that the son did not have unfettered access to weapons. They did all they could, but with no other justification for action they walked away.”
A spokesman for Georgia Bureau of Investigation The suspect's parents “have been cooperative up until this point,” he told Fox News Digital.
The comments came in response to a question about whether authorities were investigating the shooter's parents following Wednesday's attack, which left four people dead and nine injured.
The suspect was booked into the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center. WSB Television. The Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center is located about an hour north of Apalachee High School in Winder.
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Women shed tears as they attend a vigil at Jug Tavern Park following the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. (Reuters/Elijah Nouvellaj)
Matthew Fagiana, a former police sergeant and law enforcement consultant, He told Fox News Digital As investigators begin their investigation, they are focusing on the 14-year-old suspect's background and motives.
“This involves taking a detailed look at the suspect's past, including the timeline of events leading up to the shooting, the suspect's interactions with the victim, whether there were any indications of violent behavior, any statements or social media posts that may help us infer a motive, and any recent internet history,” he said.
“And of course, that's just scratching the surface of the investigation,” he added.
Fagiana said responding agencies, including the FBI's Atlanta office and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, had thoroughly searched the scene at Apalachee High School and had a “precise picture” of how the suspect moved around the school.
Fox News Digital's Greg Norman, Sarah Rumpf Whitten and Stephanie Price contributed to this report.
