KEY POINTS
- Two students and two teachers have been killed in a shooting at a high school in the US state of Georgia.
- The suspect, a 14-year-old student at the school, was in custody and will be charged and tried as an adult.
- Nine others were taken to hospitals with various injuries from gunshots, investigators said.
It left four dead at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and nine people were taken to hospitals with various injuries from gunshots, investigators said at a press conference.
What do we know about the suspect?
“What we see behind us is an evil thing today,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said during a brief news conference on school grounds.
How did authorities respond?
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 enrolment of nearly 1,900 last year, began classes on 1 August.
How have political leaders responded?
“Jill (Biden’s wife) and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” Biden said in a statement, calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to pass “common-sense gun safety legislation”.
Four people have died at Apalachee High School in Georgia after a 14-year-old student opened fire. Source: AAP / Erik S. Lesser/EPA
Vice-president Kamala Harris, , called the shooting a “senseless tragedy”.
Former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, wrote on social media: “Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA. These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”