WINDER, Georgia — A shooting at a Georgia high school left an unknown number of people injured and a suspect arrested Wednesday. In the chaos, police stormed the campus and students sought shelter in the football stadium.
A suspect is in custody, authorities said.
“What you see behind us is something evil,” said Jud Smith, sheriff of Barrow County, at a brief press conference in front of Apalachee High School. He declined to provide further details about those injured in the shooting.
Jacob King, a sophomore football player, said he was dozing off in world history class after morning practice when he heard about 10 gunshots.
King said he didn’t believe it was a real shooting until he heard a police officer yelling at someone to put down their gun. King said as his class was being led out, he saw police officers protecting an apparently injured student.
Ashley Enoh was at home Wednesday morning when she received a text message from her brother, a senior at Apalachee High School:
“Just so you know, I love you,” he wrote to her.
When she asked in the family group chat what was going on, he said there was a shooter at the school. Enoh’s younger sister, an eleventh-grader, said she had heard about the shooter and everything was on lockdown.
Few details were immediately available from authorities, who said the call came in just before 10:30 a.m. when “officers from multiple law enforcement agencies, as well as fire and rescue personnel, were dispatched to the high school for a reported shooting,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“Casualties have been reported, but details on their number or condition are not currently available,” the statement added.
Helicopter video from WSB-TV showed dozens of police and emergency vehicles surrounding the school in Barrow County, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.
When Erin Clark, 42, received a text message from her son Ethan, a 12th-grader at the high school, saying there was an active shooter, she rushed to the school from her job at the Amazon warehouse. The two texted “I love you” and Clark said she prayed for her son on the drive to the high school.
Since the main road to the school was closed, Clark parked and walked with other parents. The parents were then led to the soccer field. In the midst of the chaos, Clark found Ethan sitting in the stands.
Clark said her son was writing an essay in class when he heard the gunshots. Her son then barricaded the door with his classmates and hid.
“I’m so proud of him for doing that,” she said. “He was so brave.”
Before Wednesday’s shooting, the school year had only started for students a little over a month ago.
“I’m afraid to send him back,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”
Traffic to the school was backed up for over a mile as parents tried to get to their children.
“I have deployed 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,” Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said in a statement.
“We will continue to work with local, state and federal partners as we gather information and continue to respond to this situation,” Kemp added.
A statement from the FBI office in Atlanta said: “FBI Atlanta is aware of the current situation at Apalachee High School in Barrow County. Our agents are on site coordinating and assisting local law enforcement.”
The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting by his homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall and that the administration would coordinate with federal, state and local authorities as it received more information.
According to Georgia Department of Education records, Apalachee High School has about 1,900 students. According to the Barrow County School System, it became the second largest public high school in Barrow County when it opened in 2000. It is named after the Apalachee River on the southern edge of Barrow County.
The shooting also had a major impact in Atlanta. Authorities there have increased patrols at schools. “As a precautionary measure,” more patrols will be conducted at schools in Atlanta for the remainder of the day, said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
By JEFF AMY, Associated Press
