New details emerge about 14-year-old suspect and victims in deadliest school shooting of the year

By Holly Yan and Dalia Faheid | CNN

Classrooms and hallways once again became sites of carnage and horror when a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, left four people dead.

Wednesday’s mass shooting was the 45th school shooting in the U.S. this year since the March 2023 massacre at The Covenant School in Nashville that left six people dead.

In Georgia, a 14-year-old student is suspected of killing two students and two teachers with an AR-based weapon. Nine others were hospitalized.

As another community mourns a senseless school shooting, investigators are revealing more details about the case. Here’s what we know:

How the devastation happened

The suspect left his Algebra 1 class at about 9:45 a.m., his classmate Lyela Sayarath told CNN. The classroom door automatically locks, and at the end of the class, the suspect knocked on the door to try to get back in, Lyela said.

Another student went to answer the door but apparently saw the gun and refused to let him in, Lyela said. That distraction may have saved her life.

“I think he wanted to come to us first,” Lyela said.

Instead, the gunman turned toward a nearby classroom and opened fire. “We heard about 10 to 15 shots, one right after the other,” Lyela said.

The first report of the shooting came in at about 10:20 a.m. Georgia Bureau of Investigations Director Chris Hosey said two school police officers and other law enforcement officers quickly arrived at the scene.

One of the school’s security officers confronted the shooter, who surrendered and was arrested, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.

The suspect, Colt Gray, was being held Thursday at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Centers, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice told CNN. He will make his first court appearance Friday, department spokesman Glenn Allen said.

Beloved teachers and students died