Typically pursuing however, any leads of any potential associates of
the shooter that was involved in this incident.
So I say that to say we're following up any
potential leads through the investigation to ensure if there are
any associates involved in this that we we find them,
we identify them.
So that's part of again the ongoing investigation.
There is no evidence of the of the list of
schools being targeted.
However, there is a lot of evidence that is being
recovered and evaluated.
We're going through everything to determine if there is any
active threats to any schools in this area, this county
and the state of Georgia.
And we will continue to monitor that throughout this investigation
throughout the evening as we as we carry on.
There was a a call, as we're aware of, to
a local high school as well this morning with a
reported threat.
Police responded and investigated and determined that there was no
threat.
After all, there's been reports that a Colton Gray, who
is another student here at the school was involved or
a Colton that Colton Gray was involved in this.
If you call from a previous press conference earlier this
afternoon, the individual that we have arrested and will be
charged with this name is Colt Gray.
But there is another student here at the school with
a very similar name.
We want to ensure everyone that Colton Gray is not
involved in this incident.
That is the name that I provided you earlier this
afternoon.
So those reports were inaccurate if that if that was
was passed on to you.
I do, however, want to identify the victims of this
of this incident today, those that lost their lives in
this tragic event.
Mason Sherma Horn, age 14, who is a student here
at the school.
Christian Angelo, who was 14, also a student here at
the school.
Richard Aspinwall, not sure of his age, but he was
a teacher here at the school.
And Christina Emory, I'm sorry for my pronunciation, who is
also a teacher here at the school.
We will post a list of these victims for the
correct spellings for everyone later this evening after we complete
the the press conference here.
Also, as it has been released, the FB is National
Threat Operations Center has received received anonymous tips in the
past of online threats to commit school violence or school
shootings at an undetermined location and time.
The FBI referred this information to the Jackson County Sheriff
Office for action.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office identified and located Gray, who
is our suspect in this case.
They conducted an investigation at that time and there was
no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional
law enforcement action.
This is not recent, this is in the past, but
we wanted to bring that to your attention because we
are pursuing that, working with the FBI on that and
any connection to that that incident that could be connected
to today's incident as well.
Also, we're also aware of some previous contacts that the
Department of Family and Children Services in the area had
had with the suspect and his family and we are
pursuing that Ave.
as well too, to see if that has any connection
with today's incident.
Let me stress again, as we have many times that
this is still a very fluid investigation.
It is still very active.
We will have agents and they'll be law enforcement personnel
that will be put pursuing investigative leads and collecting evidence
throughout the night.
And then too much of tomorrow I would anticipate as
well.
We again ask for your patience in that this is
a criminal investigation and we're going to treat it like
that.
So I apologize ahead of time if we don't answer
some of the the questions that you may ask.
So please understand.
I also want to want to bring note to one
very special thing that we do not need to forget
about here is we have heroes in our midst.
We've talked about our law enforcement personnel, our fire, our
EMS.
Those that are deceased are heroes in my book.
Those that are in the hospital recovering right now are
heroes in my book.
But also the heroes that we need to remember is
our faculty and staff here at this school.
They acted admirably.
They were heroes in the actions that they took.
The protocols in this school, in this system activated today
prevented this from being a much larger tragedy than what
we had here today.
So I want to recognize them as heroes because they
are and continue with our thoughts and prayers, as has
been mentioned, for the families that were lost here today,
those that were lost here today, those that are recovering
in the hospital, and obviously those that were affected directly
by this tragedy here at the school and all of
the community of Barrow County, we need to continue having
them in our thoughts and prayers.
Director, thank you for doing another one of these again.
Can you tell us by chance, since he's being charged
as an adult, will he be in court tomorrow?
Will there be a 1st court appearance?
Will he be booked tonight?
Will that happen?
He will be booked tonight.
I'm not sure the court appearance, but it will be
within a reasonable amount of time.
Is there anything that you can share to us about
the weapon that was used by chance?
The weapon that was used in this was an AR
platform style weapon.
So how did Mr.
Greg get the gun into this?
We're still investigating that aspect of it.
Did he go out of the classroom and get the
gun and come back?
We've heard some of that from some students.
We're still trying to clarify a lot of the timeline
in for the time that you got here to school
today until the last one from me.
I mean, so often I know people at home, we
always hear something that the FBI has heard something about
someone who goes and does one of these tragic events.
How can we stop this from happening?
Because it feels like this happens every single time there's
a school shooting that we heard that there was a
prior threat or there's prior knowledge what when lives are
at stake.
How can we stop this from happening in the future?
Well, there's a variety of ways, in my personal opinion,
community involvement, what our school system is doing here to
ensure that whether we'd be able to stop it completely
one day or not, I don't know.
That's that.
Those are decisions that each individual is making on their
own to do this.
But again, I go back to what I said earlier
about the heroes here that prevented things from being a
lot worse today.
But we've got to take action within our own communities,
take care of each other, be aware of our surroundings
and what's going on in our community.
The family last year and they found hunting rifles in
the family home was an AR platform weapon among those
weapons that were in the home during that interview.
Again, that's part of a lot of the things that
we're trying to clarify within the investigation.
Again, we're very, very early share situation.
Was it from a 911 call from a faculty or
staff member or from a student?
Can you just expand on that since they got here
within minutes?
Could you also expand on why it was a female
faculty member walking around looking for the student minutes before
he shot up the school?
Can can y'all clarify that?
I'll let Director Hosey answer that question.
The source officer didn't approach him, ma'am.
Let let's get this question right here and then we'll
come.
You asked how was I notified?
I we we discussed today heard earlier here within several
minutes.
So we just curious how the notification went through.
Didn't I want to hear about it from a student
or was it a faculty that made that a learning
law enforcement, all of our teachers form of an ID
called Syntegics and syntegics alarms us and alerts the law
enforcement office after buttons are pressed on an ID and
it alerts us to that there is an active situation
at the school for whatever reason.
And that was pressed.
And we've had that about a week now and we've
stories of students actually calling other students while they were
in the hallway while all this chaos is pulling their
classmates into the classrooms to get them to secure to
get them to safety.
What do you think that says about these these young
folks who are, you know, buried 131415 years old that
they're looking out for one another like that?
It's admirable.
It's like Director Hosey said, we have heroes among us
and those students and teachers that did that today saved
a lot of lives.
This could have been a way worse than what we
and again, the investigation is still trying to file through
those that information.
But those kids are are heroes and brave as well
to do that when they hear an active shooter around
them.
Let me let me get this one question right here.
Did you have something else, man?
No, it was me.
OK I was asking why did the school resource officer
not go looking for this kid and approach him?
And why they sent a female faculty member to the
room to the algebra room he was in with my
daughter looking for him instead of the school resource officer?
Or why the school allowed this boy to come and
go from the class all the time.
He would go & up for the the restroom pass,
leave the class and come back sometimes and sometimes never
come back.
He has been wandering this school with.
With all due respect ma'am, I think your information is
incorrect and our investigation is going to lead to what
we have and we will be glad to answer your
questions once that's done.
I guess Dick, those are lying possibly.
What can you tell us about the SRO?
You talked about a lot of heroes.
You talked about how one of the SRO's encountered the
shooter.
What can you tell us about them, who they are,
how long they've been working here and, and what they
did today?
Both of the Sros that are here at these high
schools, at all of my high schools, I have two
there.
Both of the Sros, to include a third one was
here today, not for any other reason other than to
help and assist today.
They're the true heroes as well.
They were actively looking.
They had an alert, I guess if you will, and
when they interjected or when this shooting began, they interacted
with the shooter, Mr.
Gray, and as soon as they made contact with him,
he gave up immediately.
Can you share these officers names?
Not at this time.
I'd rather not.
Sure.
Where is the shooter right now?
You said in custody?
The shooter is in custody at the Barrett County Detention
Center because he is a juvenile.
He's being booked in and he will be transported to
RYDC.
Were officials or school administrators tipped off by a threat
here before the shooting happened?
I'm not aware of that at this time.
Sheriff or Director, can you say the condition on those
injured that were taken to the hospital?
Have you got any updates on how they're doing?
All of our victims that are at the hospital are
are going to make it and going to recover well,
as we've been told, and we don't expect any more
fatalities at this time.
Last question, has there been any shooting or tragedy to
this scale inside a Georgia school that you're aware?
Can you speak to that?
I can't speak to that, no.
Can you put this in perspective for us then what,
What today is meant for law enforcement, for students, all
of those affected?
Tragic.
When someone preys on kids, it's tragic.
Like I said earlier, hate is not going to prevail
in our county and hate's not going to prevail in
our state.
And pure evil did.
What happened today.
That's all I can tell you.
I want to continue to say that I'm proud of
the men and women behind me.
I'm proud of the women that stood beside me.
I'm proud of the men and women who protected these
kids.
I'm proud of this staff.
I'm proud of this community.
And I just asked for prayers.
Thank you.
Is there anymore your office can do to prevent shootings
like this?
Well, look, we've done a tremendous amount on school safety,
but today is not the day for politics or policy.
Today is the day for an investigation to mourn these
precious Georgians that we have lost, to thank the first
responders that went, you know, into the line of fire,
the school staff Superintendent, the principal and others that are
just trying to hold this community together.
That's what we need to be focused on right now.
We also had a tragic loss of a firefighter in
Greene County earlier today before this event happened with an
explosion that killed the life of a first responder that,
again, was running in to danger when many people were
trying to run out.
And that's what the focus needs to be on tonight.
I would ask everybody to continue to keep this community,
these victims in, these educators and these men and women
in law enforcement in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you.
Thank you, Governor.
I just want to thank everyone for their patience and
taking the time to cover this.
We ask that you continue to follow the GBI for
updates.
As we said earlier, we're going to continue to provide
updates.
It's very important that we get this information out right
now.
We really want to focus on our victims and you
can, as I said earlier, continue to follow us as
we can provide additional updates.
Thank you.