What We Know About the Four People Killed of the Georgia School Shooting
Four people were killed in a mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on Wednesday morning.
The victims have been identified as:
- Mason Schermerhorn, a 14-year-old student
- Christian Angulo, a 14-year-old student
- Richard Aspinwall, a teacher
- Christina Irimie, a teacher
According to the school’s website, both adult victims were math teachers. Richard Aspinwall also served as an assistant football coach.
Water, Sports Drinks, and Granola Bars: How Neighbors Came Together to Help After the Georgia School Shooting
When they were at a loss for what to do, neighbors set up a table with Goldfish crackers and two types of blue Gatorade.
Chris Comfort had heard the sirens rushing toward Apalachee High School, along with the nearby middle school and preschool, just after 10 a.m. local time. News soon began to spread—through text chains, local news, and CNN—about gunshots at the high school and kids in lockdown. Helicopters soon hovered overhead.
By noon, vehicles of all kinds had started to line up on Haymon Morris Road, the main route to and from the campus. The traffic moved slowly, with brake lights glowing red.
Some drivers turned onto Comfort’s side street and parked two cars deep. Others, unwilling to face the congestion, began walking—trudging a mile or more under the hot sun in hopes of confirming their worst fears weren’t true.
By midafternoon, neighbors had been bringing water and snacks for hours. They offered water, sports drinks, granola bars, applesauce packs, cheese and peanut butter crackers, gummies, and cold cubed watermelon.
They worked in shifts, distributing supplies primarily to the walkers but also to drivers inching by on the road.
One neighbor, known only as Chris, was there with her 15-year-old daughter, Geaux, a homeschooled 10th grader who socializes with many kids from the neighborhood, sports, and church who attend Apalachee High.
“I hated that my friends, and even kids I don’t know, are having to go through this,” Geaux said.
Some of those kids walked back past the snack table with their parents.
“It’s the afternoon, and many of them haven’t eaten since breakfast,” Chris said.
“There were some kids who hadn’t eaten since last night because they didn’t have time for breakfast this morning. They were on their way to school,” Geaux explained.
“It’s hot,” the teenager added. “And it’s scary.”
Students huddled with their classmates during the shooting while their teacher stood over them
Shana McMillan, a teacher at a Head Start program in Gainesville, Georgia, rushed out the door when she heard her daughter’s school was on lockdown yesterday. She described the journey as “the longest ride … to get to my baby.”
Though McMillan did not witness the shooting, her daughter heard the gunshots and saw blood on the floor when they were evacuated. McMillan’s daughter’s teacher had them huddle in a corner and stood over them to “protect them just in case the shooter came in the room,” McMillan said.
McMillan’s daughter was in a classroom across from where one of the teachers was killed, and students from the neighboring room came into her daughter’s classroom crying.
As her daughter huddled with her classmates, McMillan received chilling texts from her daughter.
“She had texted me… and said we were in a hard lockdown. She said she was scared and thought they might be coming to her classroom next,” McMillan said.
When they were finally reunited, McMillan said she held her daughter tightly.
A teen who skipped school on Wednesday recounts learning about her friend’s death in a shooting
Kathrine Maldonado, a teen who missed school at Apalachee High School on Wednesday, learned of her friend’s death through a group chat, she told CNN’s Ryan Young.
Maldonado overslept and missed school that day. When she woke up, she received a message from a friend informing her that the school was on lockdown. The friend assured her she was safe and then began sharing updates in group chats, where they discovered that one friend had been killed and at least two others were injured.
“When I found out, I started crying and I just got mad. I just couldn’t understand why someone would shoot innocent people,” Kathrine said.
Kathrine said that her friend who died in the shooting was known as a class clown and described him as a “sweet person.”
An Apalachee student prayed while hearing “people begging not to be shot.”
Shortly after Dr. Anetra Pattman bid farewell to her 14-year-old daughter, Macey Right, as she left for school, she received a text:
“Mom, I’m scared. I hear gunshots. Please come and get me.”
Pattman, a teacher at an alternative school in Barrow County, approximately 5 miles from Apalachee High School, immediately showed the messages to her school principal.
“Once [the principal] confirmed that there was an active shooter, my main priority was to stay in touch with my daughter,” Pattman said. “I told her to keep texting me, no matter what, to let me know she was okay.”
With around 22 years of teaching experience, Pattman had been practicing active shooter drills for about a decade.
“I knew she couldn’t call me, and I couldn’t reach her, so I just tried to reassure her that she was safe and that her teachers would take care of her,” Pattman said.
Meanwhile, Macey and a group of girls held hands and prayed. Moments later, they were startled by banging and shouting, according to Macey.
“I heard gunshots outside my classroom, along with screaming and people begging not to be shot. I saw people beside me shaking and crying,” Macey recounted.
Macey expressed her concerns about returning to school.
“I really don’t want to go back. I feel like I shouldn’t have to go to school worrying about dying. I want to focus on my GPA and my future career, not on my safety.”
Apalachee High School Students Share Harrowing Experiences During Shooting
Apalachee High School students say they are still coming to terms with today’s shooting, in which a 14-year-old is alleged to have opened fire, resulting in four fatalities.
“It’s been really tough because so much happened in such a short time,” Jayden Finch told CNN. “It’s been hard to process everything.”
Jayden said he was in a classroom close to where the shooting occurred. His class was in the middle of presentations when a lockdown alert appeared on the classroom TV.
“There was complete silence, and then we heard gunshots. Everyone just rushed to the corner,” Jayden recounted.
Zyrianna Finch recalled that her teacher had stepped out to retrieve papers from a different room, leaving another teacher in charge of the class.
As “really loud shots” rang out, she and her classmates were instructed to take cover in a closet, Zyrianna said.
Nicholas Criswell described the gunshots as sounding like someone “banging on the door.”
He noted that while his teachers were “a little bit panicked,” they quickly moved the students into a corner and followed the emergency procedures.
Nicholas also recalled hearing “scuffling feet and shouting” before the police arrived to evacuate the students from the building.
Student says gunman tried to enter the classroom but was stopped; gunfire followed moments later.
Lyela Sayarath, a junior at Apalachee High School, told CNN that she was seated next to Colt Gray, the suspected gunman, just before the fatal shooting unfolded on Wednesday.
She recounted that Colt left the classroom at the start of their Algebra 1 class around 9:45 a.m. local time. Lyela initially thought he was heading to the bathroom, but since he didn’t take a pass, she suspected he might be skipping class.
Towards the end of Algebra, Lyela said an announcement came over the loudspeaker instructing her teacher to check her email.
Soon after, Colt returned to the classroom, which Lyela noted had an automatically locking door. She described how a classmate attempted to open the door for him but recoiled after apparently seeing that he was carrying a gun.
“I think he realized we weren’t going to let him in, and since the door to the adjacent classroom was open, he just started shooting there,” Lyela told CNN.
She explained that when the gunshots began, her classmates hid behind desks, describing the sounds as continuous and rapid.
“Everyone dropped to the floor and huddled together in a corner,” she said. “The teacher turned off the lights, and we pushed desks in front of us for protection.”
Lyela mentioned that her friend was in the classroom where the shooting occurred.
“He was really shaken up,” she said. “He saw someone get shot, had blood on him, and was limping. He looked absolutely horrified.”
She described Colt as a quiet and shy individual who only gave one-word answers during group projects.
“You can hear gunshots from afar”: Students recall the shooting at Apalachee High School
Several students who were inside Apalachee High School during Wednesday’s shooting shared their experiences with CNN.
“When it happened, I had just entered the classroom during the second period,” said Janice Martinez. “I heard screaming, but at first, I thought it was just someone messing around in the hallway. I didn’t think much of it.”
However, Martinez soon realized something was wrong as the noise grew louder. “I told everyone to get down. You don’t joke around with that,” she said. She noticed some girls crying and the teacher visibly shaking, so she tried to reassure them: “I kept saying, ‘It’s going to be OK,’ because if you believe it, it will be.”
Authorities later escorted them out of the classroom to the field.
Another student, Alexandra Romero, recalled hearing gunshots in the distance. As they got louder, the school went into lockdown. Romero and her classmates stayed in their room for about 10 minutes before being evacuated by authorities.
Julie Sandoval described hearing five gunshots right next to her—loud bangs, like heavy books falling repeatedly. She and her classmates hid in the corner until the police arrived.
“I was shaking and started crying. I tried texting my friends, but nothing was working,” Sandoval said.
Worried about her sister, who also attends the school, she texted her parents to tell them she loved them.
“I love you” a senior at Apalachee High School texts his mom after gunshots ring out.
Erin Clark was at work Wednesday morning when she received a series of text messages from her son, who was in class at Apalachee High School.
“School shooting,” “I’m scared,” “pls,” “I’m not joking,” read the rapid messages from her son.
“I’m leaving work,” Clark responded.
“I love you,” wrote her 17-year-old son, Ethan Haney.
“Love you too, baby,” she texted back as she rushed to the high school.
Please read the text exchange between a student and his mother
On Wednesday morning, Erin Clark was at work when she received a series of messages from her son, who was attending Apalachee High School.
Clark told CNN that her son, a senior at Apalachee High School, heard eight or nine gunshots before quickly shutting his classroom door. He and a classmate then moved chairs and tables to barricade it.
According to Clark, parents were not allowed to drive directly to the school, so they parked on a nearby street and walked.
“Once we got to the school, they directed us to the football field to meet our kids,” she said. Clark later found Ethan safe near the bleachers.
She described feeling “absolutely terrified” upon reading her son’s texts and kept praying for his safety, adding she was “in complete shock that this was actually happening.”
