The Georgia school shooter who took the lives of 2 students and 2 teachers on Wednesday was suspected a year ago of having the propensity to commit a mass shooting crime.
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Colt Gray, a 14-year-old student, was arrested after sneaking an AR-platform-style weapon inside Apalachee High School in Barrow County before opening fire and killing 4 people and wounding 9 others. News of the shooting spree was shocking enough. However, Americans were caught completely off guard to learn that the Georgia school shooter was investigated a year ago over online threats he made in advance of his shooting spree.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips as far back as May of 2023. The tips warned that a teen was making comments on an online gaming site threatening to conduct a school shooting. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the threats didn’t identify a school or a date of a planned shooting, but the teen posted pictures of guns.
Investigators tracked the post to a 13-year-old, Colt Gray, who was interviewed along with his father.
“The father stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them,” an FBI spokesman said. “The subject denied making the threats online.”
The sheriff’s office alerted local schools at the time and Gray was allegedly monitored, the FBI added.
“A thorough investigation was conducted,” Jackson Sheriff Janis Mangum said. “During the course of this investigation, the gaming site threats could not be substantiated.” Additionally, no charges were filed.
Fast-forward 1 year later, and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo as well as educators Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie are now dead.
So, exactly how did a teen threaten in 2023 to conduct a mass shooting at his school — and then actually get away with it in 2024 while supposedly being monitored by police authorities?
“At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels,” the FBI said.
They also added that since the shooting, the public has come forward with tips regarding other possible shooting attempts.
“My phone is blowing up with messages from people about social media postings about other possible incidents,” Mangum said.
Perhaps authorities should take such threats more seriously and prevent shootings in advance, instead of reacting after the fact.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris went off script during a political rally to discuss the ramifications of the Georgia school shooter.
Ms. Harris called the shooting a “senseless tragedy.”
The full powerful remarks of Kamala Harris on the Georgia school shooting, “It is just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.” pic.twitter.com/Qtz3UaQKBX
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 4, 2024
“It is just outrageous that every day in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive,” she told a sobbing crowd of supporters.
“But our kids are sitting in a classroom, where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their beautiful brain is worried about a shooter busting through the classroom. It does not have to be this way.
“We’ve got to end the epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all,” she concluded.
For his part, Donald Trump all but ignored the actions of the Georgia school shooter and used a live appearance with Fox News’ Sean Hannity to make the day all about himself.
Trump responds to Hannity bringing up the school shooting in Georgia by saying, “it’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons. And we’re gonna make it better and we’re gonna heal our world.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 5, 2024
Trump then touts his endorsement from Orban. pic.twitter.com/897cCGoQlG
“It’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons and we’re going to make it better. We’re going to heal our world. We’re going to get rid of all these wars that are starting all over the place because of incompetence,” Trump said Wednesday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to thunderous applause.
“We’re going to hopefully do very well. We have an election coming up … We’re going to be, I think, we’re going to be very well set up to do a great job.” Trump continued. He then added, “Bring Trump back and we won’t have any problems.”
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
FBI investigated the Georgia school shooter a year ago.
As a society, we’re the only first world nation dealing with this Epidemic of “senseless tragedies” directly related to gun violence that’s been going on for over 2 decades now.
For over 20 yrs children in America have been forced to attend a potential killing field every time they step foot in a school classroom. It’s pure madness!
And as Kamala Harris stated yesterday “THIS is a choice” rhat WE (Adults) have made and Our children will continue to die or live with severe injuries (physically and/or mentally) the rest of their lives.
It’s shameful and absolutely unforgivable!