14-year-old student kills 4 in a rampage at a Georgia high school

At least nine other people — eight students and one teacher — were injured in the incident, shifted to hospitals

Winder: A 14-year-old student opened fire at a Georgia high school and killed four people on Wednesday, authorities said, sending students scrambling for shelter in their classrooms — and eventually to the football stadium — as officers swarmed the campus and parents raced to find out if their children were safe.

The dead were identified as two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, about an hour’s drive from Atlanta. At least nine other people — eight students and one teacher — were taken to hospitals with injuries. The words “hard lockdown” appeared on a screen in junior Layla Ferrell’s health class and lights began flashing. She and her frightened classmates piled desks and chairs in front of the door to create a barricade, she recalled.

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Sophomore Kaylee Abner was in geometry class when she heard the gunshots. She and her classmates ducked behind their teacher’s desk, and then the teacher began flipping the desk in an attempt to barricade the classroom door, Abner said. A classmate beside her was praying, and she held his hand while they all waited for police.

After students poured into the football stadium, Abner saw teachers who had taken off their shirts to help treat gunshot wounds. Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes after a report of shots fired went out, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. The suspect, a student at the school, immediately surrendered and was taken into custody. He is being charged as an adult with murder.

Authorities were still looking into how the suspect obtained the gun used in the shooting and got it into the school in Barrow County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. At an afternoon news conference, officials would not say what type of gun was used.