Georgia shooting lasted about a minute after 26 teachers alerted authorities, sheriff says

The shooting inside Apalachee High School lasted about a minute, beginning in a hallway and ending in a classroom, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told ABC News.

Within that minute, Colt Gray, the 14-year-old accused of opening fire at his Georgia high school, shot 13 people, Smith said.

Four of the victims died — two teachers and two students — but there would have been more deaths had it not been for the quick response and the emergency alert system the county installed a week prior, the sheriff said.

Smith said all teachers at the school have an ID made by the safety technology company CENTEGIX, which has a button they can press to alert authorities to an “active situation.”

There were 26 teachers who pushed their buttons, immediately sending simultaneous notifications to law enforcement, Smith told ABC News.

According to Smith, before officers made it inside, two school resource officers had already found the alleged shooter. They were about 70 yards away from him with handguns, Smith said. The shooter had an assault-style rifle. It was a no-win situation, but they still charged at the suspect, Smith said.

“They stopped the carnage,” Smith said. “At that distance with what he had and what we had, it was a no-win situation…it could have been worse”

Lyela Sayarath, an 11th grader, said she was in Algebra class with Gray just minutes before police say the suspect went on a shooting rampage inside.

“I’ve never seen him really talk to anybody,” Sayarath told ABC News about the suspect, who transferred to the school last month. “He never really talked, and he was just kind of quiet.”

On the morning of the shooting, Sayarath said she did not notice anything unusual about Gray’s demeanor.

That was until both Gray and another student with a similar name left the classroom, separately, and an administrator came in and took the latter’s backpack, Sayarath told ABC News.

“[An administrator] came in and asked for my friend and then when they found out he was in the restroom, they asked for his bag and then they took his bag. And then a little bit later, he came back in with his bag,” Sayarath said, adding that the boy with a similar name is her friend and told her there was some sort of confusion and that the administrator had been looking for Gray, not him.

“I mean, he obviously, like, when he came back with his bag, like, we knew at that point they were looking for [Gray] and his bag, so we thought he had something…We just continued class like normal until [an administrator] asked my teacher to check her email over the intercom,” Sayarath said.

Moments later, Sayarath said, Gray tried to get back into the classroom and Sayarath said her teacher notified administrators.

“[A] student was about to let them in. She backed away from the door and didn’t let him in… And then…from where I’m sitting, I could see him, like, through the window. And then he just kind of turned to [the] right. And then he fired about 10 or 15 shots.”

Sayarath said the class started scrambling, many students rushed against the back wall of the room, others helped barricade the door by pushing desks against it, while some students called their parents.

Gray’s mother, Marcee Gray, called the high school Wednesday morning to warn a counselor of an “extreme emergency” involving her son, his aunt, Annie Polhamus Brown, told ABC News, after it was first reported in the Washington Post.

The Washington Post was the first to report on Marcee Gray’s alleged phone call with the school and obtained text messages between family members.

Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder for allegedly shooting and killing two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School on Wednesday. Another seven students and two teachers were injured.

More charges will be filed against the teen in connection to the surviving victims, prosecutors said.

The teen will be tried as an adult, authorities said.

The teen’s father, Colin Gray, 54, was arrested Thursday and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said.

Colin Gray is accused of “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said Thursday. Investigators said they believe that Gray received the AR-style gun used in the shooting from his father, with sources telling ABC News the weapon was a Christmas present.

The suspect and his father have not entered pleas.

ABC News has reached out to Barrow County Schools for comment. A spokesperson says they are not releasing a statement at this time. The sheriff said he wasn’t aware of any calls the suspect’s mother made to the school warning about an “extreme emergency” before the shooting.