Alleged high school shooter’s chilling request

Soon after the denial, a round of gunshots erupted inside Apalachee High School in Winder.

Lyela Sayarath told CNN that suspected gunman Colt Gray, who she sat next to in the maths classroom, left at the start of the period only to return near the end of it.

Ms Sayarath reportedly said someone over the loudspeaker told her teacher to check her email, and moments later, Gray, 14, wanted to get back inside the class.

Because the doors automatically lock when shut, someone inside the classroom must let him in.

Ms Sayarath said the suspected mass shooter later knocked to be let back in since the door automatically locked behind him.

A girl went to open up the door for him — but quickly jumped backward after presumably seeing Gray was armed.

“They almost let him in, but I’m pretty sure she saw that he had a gun and so she backed away,” Ms Sayarath said.

“And then he turned away and that’s when you hear like the first round of fire.”

“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.”

The junior said students in her Algebra class hid behind desks when they heard gunshots, a harrowing experience she described as “just one after another.”

“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,” she said.

When Ms Sayarath and her classmates heard gunshots, everyone dropped to the floor and piled on top of each other.

“The teacher turned off the lights, but we all just kind of piled together. And like I pushed desks in front of us,” she said.

What we know about the shooting

Gray has been named as the alleged gunman who opened fire at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia.

He’s accused of killing four people and injured at least nine on Wednesday morning after he began shooting at people inside the school, police said.

About 10.20am (local time), around two hours after classes at Apalachee had begun, the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of an active shooter.

“Within minutes, law enforcement was on scene as well as two school resource officers assigned here to the school,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

“Once they encountered the subject, the subject immediately surrendered to these officers, and he was taken into custody,” he said.

Officials said the four victims killed were two students and two teachers. The suspect used an AR-15 style rifle in the attack, a weapon commonly used in US mass shootings.

Gray, a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School, will be charged with murder and prosecuted as an adult, according to Sheriff Smith.

Gray has been interviewed by investigators, but a motive has not yet been revealed.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said his team was “looking into every aspect of that individual, his connection here at the school.”

Alleged shooter on FBI’s radar for over a year

The suspect was questioned by law enforcement last year, along with his father, after authorities received “anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting”, according to FBI Atlanta and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

At the time, the suspect denied making the threats online and his father made assurances that his son did not have access to weapons that were stored inside the house.

Authorities are investigating how the suspect acquired the weapon and managed to get it inside the school today.

The victims have been identified as 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie.

Surviving victims have been taken to local hospitals to be treated for various degrees of injury and are expected to live.

Local law enforcement is co-ordinating both the investigation and charges with District Attorney Brad Smith of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit.

“The priority right now for us, within this investigation, is to gather all the facts,” District Attorney Smith said. “This is a murder investigation.”

Sitting next to alleged shooter

Ms Sayarath, a junior at Apalachee High School, told CNN that she was sitting next to the alleged shooter moments before Wednesday’s massacre.

She described him as a quiet student and often skipped class.

“Even when he would’ve talked, it was one word answers or short statements,” she said.

Ms Sayarath added she “wasn’t surprised” that he was the suspect in the attack.

“Just because when you think about shooters and how they act or things that they do, it’s usually the quiet kid or that’s a stereotype to be and he was the one that fit that description in our class.”

Apalachee senior Sergio Caldera, 17, told ABC News that he was in chemistry class when he heard shots.

“My teacher goes and opens the door to see what’s going on. Another teacher comes running in and tells her to close the door because there’s an active shooter,” he said.

Mr Caldera’s teacher locked the door and the students ran to the back of the room, he recalled.

He said they heard screams from outside as they huddled together.

At one point, Mr Caldera said, someone banged on the classroom door and yelled “open up!” several times.

Camille Nelms, 14, told WXIA she remembered fearing for her life at the terrifying moment Gray entered her classroom.

“I was crying. I didn’t want to die that way,” the teen told WXIA.

14-year-old Macey Right told Local3News she heard people begging not to be shot.

“I heard gunshots outside my classroom and people screaming, people begging not to get shot, and then people sitting beside me just shaking and crying,” she said.

– with Fox News and New York Post