Shots have been fired again at a school in the USA. According to police reports, four people are dead and at least nine are injured. A 14-year-old has been arrested.
According to police, four people were killed by gunfire at a school in the US state of Georgia. At least nine others were injured, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
According to authorities, a 14-year-old student has been arrested. The suspected perpetrator quickly turned himself in after the police intervened, the police director said. He will be charged with murder. The four people killed were two students and two teachers.
“It will take several days before we get answers to the question of what happened and why it happened,” said Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith. The situation is still chaotic, so he cannot currently provide any further information about the victims.
Numerous rescue workers and police units were deployed at Apalachee High School in Winder, around 70 kilometers northeast of the capital Atlanta. A 17-year-old student told ABC how he and his classmates locked the door to their classroom and hid there while screams could be heard outside. Another student described hearing screams. At first she didn’t think much of it, Janice Martinez continued. But then the noise got louder and louder. The high school students first sought shelter in their classrooms and finally gathered in the school’s football stadium.
Initially, parents were asked not to come to school because of the danger. After the situation was brought under control, they were able to pick up their children. Long lines of parked cars could be seen around the school building.
Shooter was known to the FBI
According to police, there was no connection between the fatalities and the shooter. According to a statement from the FBI, there were already several anonymous tips last year about a possible attack. Specifically, these were online threats that contained photos of weapons and announced a gun attack at a school, it said. The teenager and his father were questioned at the time. The then 13-year-old denied having threatened an attack. Local schools were alerted to continue monitoring the teenager. “At this point, there was no credible reason for an arrest or for further law enforcement action,” it continued.
A classmate described the teenager as quiet. “He never really said anything,” Lyela Sayarath told US broadcaster CNN. He also regularly skipped classes.
“Everyone’s worst nightmare”
Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemps expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. This is everyone’s worst nightmare, said Kemps.
US President Biden and his wife Jill said that students across the country were learning how to take cover instead of learning how to read and write. Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke of a senseless tragedy. “It is just outrageous that in our country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school every day worrying about whether they will come home alive,” said Harris.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wrote: “These beloved children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
Over the past two decades, there have been hundreds of gun attacks in schools and colleges in the United States. Many people have been killed. This has led to repeated calls for stricter gun laws.
With information from Claudia Sarre, ARD Studio Washington
Claudia Sarre, ARD Washington, tagesschau, 05.09.2024 06:09 a.m.
