The police and rescue services were alerted about the shooting on Wednesday morning, local time, when the entire Apalachee High School was closed and the students were forced to seek shelter in their classrooms and on the school's football stadium.
After several hours of speculation and lack of information from the authorities, the federal police, FBI's local division in the state, confirmed that four people had lost their lives – two students and two teachers.
The suspected shooter is a 14-year-old boy who was a student at the school, the police report. The teenager was arrested just minutes after the incident, but no motive has yet been made public.
We ask for patience, let us gather the facts we need so that everything is correct, says Jud Smith, sheriff in Barrow County, at a press conference.
After the incident, all schools in the district, Barrow County, were temporarily closed. In Atlanta, about eight miles southwest of the school, the police increased their presence at several schools.
President Joe Biden says in a statement that he and his wife Jill Biden mourn the dead and at the same time urge his political opponents to finally realize that "it's enough now".
"Students all over the country are learning to seek shelter instead of learning to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal", says Biden in the written statement.
