What do we know about the shooting victims?
Two 14-year-olds killed in a shooting at a high school: Mason Schermerhorn and his friend Doug Kilburn
Police rushed to Apalachee High School in Barrow County on Wednesday after a shooting was reported. Officials said a suspect was in custody.
The authorities identified the dead students as two 14-year-olds, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. The educators killed were identified as Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, officials said. Spellings of the names were not confirmed by the authorities.
“Those that are deceased are heroes in my book,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Those hospitalized right now are heroes in my book.
Mason Schermerhorn was described by friends of his family as a lighthearted teenager who liked spending time with his family, reading, telling jokes, playing video games and visiting Walt Disney World. He had recently started at the school.
Doug Kilburn is a friend of the Schermerhorn family and he said that he enjoyed life. “He always had an upbeat attitude about everything.”
When Mr. Briscoe heard of the shooting at the high school in the afternoon he called the mother to make sure everything was okay. She told him: “Mason’s gone.”
The gunman — who the authorities identified as a 14-year-old student at the school — will be charged with murder, officials said. Students were barricaded in classrooms as they heard gunfire.
David Phenix, a math special education teacher and the school’s golf coach, was injured during the shooting. A Facebook post on Wednesday by his daughter said that he was shot in the foot and hip, shattering his hip bone.
The Apalachee High School Campus Violation: A First Report from a Georgian Shooter and a Message to the Families
Apalachee High School starts its academic year on August 1. The school’s campus sits on the outskirts of Winder, Ga., near a rural highway that runs between Athens and Atlanta. According to a recent message to parents, this is the 25th year of the school.
“I have directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state,” Gov. Brian Kemp said.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents are on the scene assisting law enforcement in the investigation of the violence.
The sheriff said authorities will provide an update at 4 p.m. local time. It will take multiple days for us to get answers as to what happened and why.
The hospital that had patients from the school refused to say if it had any, but media outlets reported at least two other deaths. More information was reached out to law enforcement agencies by NPR.
Smith said that the process so far was “a very, very fluid investigation.”
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith spoke with reporters outside the school Wednesday afternoon. “Obviously what you see behind us is an evil thing today,” Smith said. “At about 9:30 this morning, we received the first call that there was an active shooter” on the campus, he added.
