A Georgia teen who was held at gunpoint by 14-year-old Colt Gray during the Apalachee High School massacre was forced into a bathroom by police officers to take her to safety. In a teary-eyed TikTok video, she urged people to hug their families because “you don't know when you'll see them again.”
In a video posted on Sept. 4, the same day Gray is accused of opening fire at a high school in Winder, Georgia, killing four people and wounding more than 30, Abby Ayers recalled a bloody incident that started out as just a “normal day.”
“I had to go to the bathroom during second period so I left the classroom like everyone else, got my bathroom pass and went in, and I heard a bang on the door,” Ayers begins in the 5-minute, 17-second TikTok, which has been viewed nearly 22 million times.
“So I left [of] “I went to the bathroom and I didn't see anything. Then I looked to my left and saw a guy with a gun. He pointed the gun at me and started running. I literally froze. I had no idea what to do.”
Next, “I saw officers running towards me. They pushed me into the bathroom and told me to go into a stall and not to open the door no matter what.”
The identity of this brave officer has not been confirmed.
“I went into the bathroom, I texted my mom and told her I loved her so much,” the girl continued, her voice choking up, “and then there was a shooter.”
Within 10 seconds, Ayers recalled, “I heard gunshots from every direction, people running down the hallway, screaming, people saying 'Help me!'”
“All I can see in my mind is a gun literally pointed at me and him running towards me,” she said.
Georgia high school shooting tragedy: What we know so far
After about 20 terrifying minutes, Ayers called her mother, begging her to come to school, when a police officer came into the bathroom and escorted her to the library.
“I come out of the bathroom and I see blood and gunpowder everywhere. The gunpowder is from a gun. I see bullets flying everywhere.”
Then, “I see the child literally being pulled out on a gurney, blue-purple, dripping with blood, and then I see them put a tarp over the child,” Ayers says in the video.
She recalled hearing screams continuously while she was in the locked library with other students and teachers.
“We had to keep our hands up and our heads up. We were told not to look around,” said Gray, about 40 minutes after he was arrested and officers began escorting students out of the classroom and onto the playground outside.
But “I looked down the hallway and there was blood and handprints all over the walls,” Ayers said.
“I physically can't believe what happened today.
“All I can say is, guys, literally hug your families because you never know when you're going to see each other again because I thought I was going to die today. I literally told my mom, 'I love you so much and no matter what happens, just know that I love you,'” the teenager continued, fighting back tears.
Ayers, who did not disclose her age or grade, did not respond to messages from The Washington Post.
Then on September 4, she posted another TikTok video with the caption, “If the cops hadn't pushed me into the bathroom I know I would have died right then and there.”
Gray, who reportedly told authorities “I did it” shortly after the incident, has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder. Her father, Collin Gray, was also arrested and charged with four counts of manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of child abuse.
