A 14-year-old student accused of killing four people and injuring nine others during a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia had been previously interviewed by the FBI in connection with online threats. In addition to leaving two pupils and two instructors dead, the attack on Wednesday also sparked concerns about how the adolescent got the weapon used in the event.
The defendant was found after an earlier inquiry last year and is now facing four counts of criminal murder. After receiving information on internet posts threatening a school shooting from the FBI's National Threat Operations Center, police enforcement spoke with the 13-year-old in May 2023. But at the time, there wasn't enough proof for the authorities to make an arrest.
The teen's father was also detained in relation to the shooting, according to a statement released by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder, and child abuse are among the counts against him. Authorities believe the attack weapon may have come from the father.
When the suspect's house was searched, authorities discovered information pointing to a possible connection to other school shootings. In the 2023 interview, the father of the suspect admitted to having hunting rifles in the home, but he maintained that the adolescent did not have unsupervised access to them. Authorities are also investigating if the father bought the pistol used in the incident on Wednesday as a present for his kid.
When the 14-year-old showed up in court on Friday, the judge told him what counts he was facing. The suspect's age precluded the death penalty, but other possible penalties include life in prison without the chance of release or life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The teenager reportedly opened fire on students and instructors on the day of the incident because they wouldn't allow him to return to his mathematics course. Peers reported hearing a flurry of gunfire, prompting them to run for safety. When school resource police got to the scene, the suspect gave himself up without putting up any fight.
Two instructors, ages 39 and 53, and two pupils, ages 14., were killed in the incident. Nine other people were hurt, eight of them pupils and one instructor. Seven of the wounded were out of the hospital by Thursday, with one still in a stable condition.
The event has raised concerns over the efficacy of earlier alerts. The suspect denied making any threats online during the 2023 interview with local law officials, and his father gave the investigators assurances that the adolescent did not have unsupervised access to guns. Even after the initial inquiry, nothing further was done at that point.
Authorities are now investigating the role of the suspect's family and the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the gun. Georgia law prohibits minors from possessing handguns, but there is no minimum age for owning rifles or shotguns, which could complicate the case.
In the 2023 interview, local police records described the suspect as "reserved" and "calm." The investigation revealed that the teen's parents were going through a divorce at the time, with his mother taking custody of two younger siblings while the teen remained with his father.
At the moment, the suspect is being housed at a juvenile correctional facility. The inquiry is still underway to find out how the teenager got the weapon and whether there were any red flags that may have stopped the accident.
The teen's former interactions with Georgia's Division of Family and Children's Services, which had ties to the family before the shooting, are also being investigated by state officials.
Following the 2023 interview, nearby schools were notified to keep an eye on the suspect; but, at the time, there was not enough evidence to warrant an arrest. The suspect used a Discord account with a profile name that alluded to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and the FBI has indicated that it traced the online threats to the account and forwarded the case to local police.