Families of Georgia pupils’ ‘terrifying’ replace wait after capturing

Students who survived the Georgia school shooting have revealed their teachers hid them in closets and claim the school did not take the threat seriously before hell broke loose.

Colt Gray, 14, opened fire at Apalachee High School on Wednesday, hitting at least 13 people and leaving four dead in what officially became the deadliest incident of its kind in Georgia’s history.

But the terrifying barrage of gunfire led to some students to hide in school cupboards as they fled to safety, as family and relatives on the outside were forced to wait impatiently for updates.

One Apalachee freshman, Jayden Finch, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that one of his friends had been killed in the shooting as his teacher ushered him and his classmates into a closet.

He also recalled seeing a body when his class was moved out to the football field. 

‘There was a threat to the school this morning, but there are so many empty threats, they didn’t take it seriously,’ Jayden added.

Apalachee senior Caden Moon told the outlet he was in the middle of a class when he heard several gunshots fired.

‘Everything was fine. And then all the screens changed to lockdown, and then I heard about five gunshots outside my classroom,’ he said. 

Micah Hartsock, an Apalachee junior, said he tried to remain calm and text his dad while chilling gunshots rang out in the hallway.

‘There’s a shooter and I heard gunshots, I was pretty close to saying that I care about you and I love you, so if I don’t make it out,’ he said in his desperate message.   

But the families of Georgia students on the outside have also spoken of the terrifying wait for updates on their children following the school shooting.

As news of the shooting broke, parents and relatives of students in the school desperately waited on information regarding the safety and wellbeing of their children.

One parent, William Hartman, revealed he got a call from his 17-year-old son who informed his parents that the incident was being filmed live on Facebook.

‘I don’t know how to explain the feelings, the fear,’ the father said.

‘I have two children which go to Hayman Morris (middle school) which borders the school and the first thing was immediately calling the schools. 

‘Then the text messages and stuff started coming through from the schools. Terror. Absolute terror.’ 

The grandparents of an Apalachee High School student, Michelle and J Watson, spoke of how they endured a painful 45 minute wait before they heard any news of their grandchild.  

‘Really sad. Really sad… You know, it took us a while before we realized that she wasn’t one of the victims. I mean, for 45 minutes… An hour…’ they recalled.

‘An hour before we got word that she was okay, it was very terrifying. It’s the least (last) thing you expect to happen in the heat around here of all places,’ they added. 

Speaking to the BBC this morning, a number of surviving students recalled their fright during the terrifying morning.

‘I saw a kid with a gun,’ one young student said.

‘We heard shots, the teacher ran, slammed the door, made us all go in the corner,’ recalled another.

A third parent revealed: ‘My son actually called me while it was going on inside the classroom’.

Officials have said that Gray’s shooting spree ended within minutes after he began firing at at approximately 10:23am before taking the lives of his four victims – teachers Christina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14.

He immediately surrendered when confronted by law enforcement, and ‘gave up and got on the ground,’ they added. 

It is unclear how the 14-year-old gunman got ahold of the weapon that was used in the attack, with cops reportedly raiding his family home in the hours after the shooting. 

Authorities say they are still investigating how Gray was able to bring an AR-style weapon inside his school, with footage of the aftermath appearing to show the weapon on the floor as terrified students were escorted down hallways to safety. 

Following his arrest, Gray will be charged with murder and will be tried as an adult, the Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Images from the scene showed students streaming out onto the campus as terrified parents raced to find their children, with one mother describing the scene outside the school as pure ‘chaos.’

A junior at the school, Lyela Sayerath, said she was sat next to Colt Gray in algebra class just minutes before he began the shooting spree.

She told CNN that Colt left the classroom at the beginning of their class at 9:45am, around half an hour before active shooter alerts sounded.

Gray didn’t take a bathroom pass, she said, leading her to initially think he was merely skipping class – before a loudspeaker announcement told teachers to check their emails.

Shortly after, Sayerath said Gray returned outside their classroom, and a student got up to open the door for him before jumping back at the sight of his gun.

‘I guess he saw we weren’t going to let him in. And I guess the classroom next to me, their door was open, so I think he just started shooting in the classroom,’ she said.

Sayerath said Gray proceeded to fire off a number of bullets ‘one after another’, adding: ‘When we heard it, most people just dropped to the floor and like kind of crawled in an area like piled on top of each other.’

Sayerath said her friend was in the next classroom and witnessed someone being shot, which left him ‘shaken up’. ‘He saw somebody get shot. He had blood on him. He was kinda limping. He looked horrified,’ she added.

Describing her classmate, Sayarath said Gray ‘never really talked, he wasn’t (in school) most times, he would just skip class… Even when he would have talked, it was one word answers.’ 

Sayarath said she ‘wasn’t surprised’ when Gray was identified as the shooter, and said that ‘when you think of shooters and the way they act, it’s usually the quiet kid and he was the one that fit that description.’ 

But the relatives of the gunman leapt to his defense in a move that has sparked backlash online and within the local community.

The teenager’s aunt, Annie Polhamus Brown, took to Facebook during the aftermath, bringing up the issues he ‘dealt with’ and saying she ‘will take care of my nephew and what he needs on this side.’ 

‘Just check yourself before you speak about a child that never asked to deal with the bull**** he saw on a daily basis,’ she said in the posts, which have now been deleted. 

‘Y’all ready to see Polhamus blood in full throttle? Nah, I wouldn’t either.’ 

Polhamus Brown said she did ‘everything I could to fight for my nephew’, as she called out people for ‘playing the blame game.’ 

She did also have some words for the victims of the shooting, saying the ‘families affected by my nephew’s actions deserve all the attention now.’ 

‘I will NOT disrespect other parents and families that are dealing with this tragedy on the opposite end. THEY DID NOT DESERVE THIS,’ she wrote.