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ATLANTA, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Four people were killed in a shooting at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, just weeks after classes began, and a suspect was taken into custody, law enforcement officials said.
The shooting left four dead at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and nine people were taken to hospitals with injuries, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation posted on X.
One suspect was in custody, the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. According to an unnamed source, CNN reported that the suspect was 14 years old. “What we see behind us is an evil thing today,” Sheriff Jud Smith said during a brief news conference on school grounds. Smith would not confirm that people were killed, saying only there were “multiple injuries” in the shooting. The incident, which took place at the school about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Atlanta, appeared to be under control, and students were being released at midday, a Barrow County Schools spokesperson said.
Local TV stations broadcast images of parents lining up in cars on a road outside the school, hoping to be reunited with their children. The school, which had an enrollment of nearly 1,900 last year, began classes on Aug. 1. Sheriff Smith said the first call law enforcement received about a shooting at the school came about 9:30 a.m., which would have been just over an hour after classes had started for the day.
ABC News quoted a witness, student Sergio Caldera, as saying he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots. Caldera, 17, told ABC his teacher opened the door, and another teacher ran in to tell her to shut the door “because there’s an active shooter.” As students and teachers huddled in the room, someone pounded on his classroom door and shouted several times for it to be opened. When the knocking stopped, Caldera heard more gunshots and screams. He said his class later evacuated to the school’s football field.
Live aerial TV images showed several ambulances outside of the high school. CNN said it witnessed a patient being loaded into a medical helicopter that had landed at the school. “Multiple law enforcement agencies and Fire/EMS personnel were dispatched to the high school in reference to a reported active shooting,” the sheriff’s office said.
The FBI field office in Atlanta dispatched agents to the high school to support local law enforcement, said Jenna Sellitto, a spokeswoman for the office. The shooting was the first “planned attack” at a school this fall, said David Reidman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database. Apalachee students returned to school last month; many other students in the U.S. are returning this week.
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