2024 Apalachee High School shooting

On September 4, 2024, a shooting occurred at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia, killing four people and injuring seven others by gunfire (with two additional non-gunshot injuries among those treated). The dead included two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and two teachers, Cristina Irimie, 53, and Richard Aspinwall, 39, who also served as an assistant football coach. The wounded were treated at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital in Athens and Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. It is described as the deadliest school shooting in Georgia's history.

Prior to the shooting, the school received a call warning that five schools would be targeted, and a separate call from the suspect's mother warning of an "extreme emergency" and asking staff to locate her son. That morning, the suspect had asked in class how the school would respond to an active shooter, prompting a staff report. School resource officers searched for him but initially detained a different student with a similar name. The shooting began after the suspect was denied re-entry into his algebra classroom; he then entered a nearby classroom and fired 10 to 15 rounds, killing one victim, before firing down a hallway. He had brought 103 rounds into the school and discharged 36. The school was placed in lockdown around 10:20 a.m., and officers engaged and arrested the suspect within minutes of arriving.

The suspect, Colt Gray, then 14, was taken into custody and charged as an adult with 55 charges, including four counts of felony murder; if convicted he faces a maximum of life imprisonment without parole and is ineligible for the death penalty due to his age. Investigative and reporting accounts describe a prior 2023 FBI and local law-enforcement visit to the Gray family after anonymous tips about online school-shooting threats attributed to Gray, which did not result in arrest, as well as documented family violence, child-welfare involvement, and reported mental health crises involving Gray in the years before the shooting.

Gray's father, Colin Gray, was charged with 27 counts, including two counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children, in connection with having given his son a semi-automatic rifle despite the prior threat allegations and documented family and mental health concerns. Colin Gray's trial began in February 2026, and on March 3, 2026, he was convicted on all charges: second-degree murder in the deaths of the two students, involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of the two teachers, 18 counts of cruelty to children, and five counts of reckless conduct. He faces up to 180 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for July 28–29, 2026.

In the aftermath, the community held memorials and vigils, the school reopened later in September 2024, metal detectors were installed in January 2025, and students later protested at the Georgia State Capitol in support of firearm-storage legislation. The shooting drew national political reaction, including statements from President Biden's administration, Vice President Harris, Georgia officials, and presidential candidates.