14-year-old student at Georgia high school faces murder charge in deadly shooting

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that four people were killed and at least nine were injured in a shooting at a high school outside of Atlanta.

Students scrambled for shelter in the football stadium as officers swarmed the campus and parents raced to find out if their children were safe.

Helicopter video from WSB-TV showed dozens of law enforcement and emergency vehicles surrounding the school about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.

A 14-year-old student was taken into custody immediately after law officers encountered him following the shooting, authorities said at a Wednesday afternoon briefing. He will be charged with murder.

Four people were killed in the school shooting — 2 students and 2 teachers, officials said. Nine other people were taken to hospitals with injuries at Apalachee High School.

Shortly before 10:30 a.m., “officers from multiple law enforcement agencies and Fire/EMS personnel were dispatched to the high school in reference to a reported active shooting,” the sheriff's office statement said.

At a news conference, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith declined to give additional details about those injured in the shooting.

“What you see behind us is an evil thing," Smith said, standing outside the school.

When Erin Clark, 42, received a text from her son Ethan, a senior at the high school, that there was an active shooter, she rushed from her job at the Amazon warehouse to the school. The two texted “I love you,” and Clark said she prayed for her son as she drove to the high school.

With the main road blocked to the school, Clark parked and ran with other parents. Parents were then directed to the football field. Amid the chaos, Clark found Ethan sitting on the bleachers.

Clark said her son was writing an essay in class when he first heard the gunshots. Her son then worked with his classmates to barricade the door and hide.

“I’m so proud of him for doing that,” she said. “He was so brave.”

Students had only started the school year a little over a month ago before the shooting Wednesday.

“It makes me scared to send him back,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Traffic going to the school was backed up for more than a mile as parents tried to get to their children there.

“I have directed 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 Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement.

“We will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners as we gather information and further respond to this situation,” Kemp added.

In a statement, the FBI's Atlanta office said: “FBI Atlanta is aware of the current situation at Apalachee High School in Barrow County. Our agents are on scene coordinating with and supporting local law enforcement.”

The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed by his Homeland Security Advisor, Liz Sherwood-Randall, about the shooting and the administration will coordinate with federal, state and local officials as it receives more information.

Apalachee High School has about 1,900 students, according to records from Georgia education officials. It became Barrow County's second largest public high school when it opened in 2000, according to the Barrow County School System. It’s named after the Apalachee River on the southern edge of Barrow County.

The shooting had reverberations in Atlanta, where patrols of schools in that city were beefed up, authorities said. More patrols of Atlanta schools would be done “for the rest of the day out of an abundance of caution,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.