WINDER, Ga. (AP) — A 14-year-old student opened fire at a Georgia high school Wednesday, killing four people, authorities said. Students were forced to take cover in their classrooms — and eventually to the football stadium — as officers stormed the campus and parents rushed to check on their children.

The dead were identified as two students and two teachers from Apalachee High School in Winder, about an hour’s drive from Atlanta. The dead were two other 14-year-olds, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and teachers Richard Aspenwall and Christina Irimie, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at an evening news conference.

At least nine other people — eight students and one teacher — were taken to the hospital with injuries. All were expected to survive, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said.

The words “hard lockdown” appeared on a screen in junior Layla Ferrell’s health class and the lights began to flash. She and her anxious classmates piled desks and chairs in front of the door to create a barricade, she recalled.

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

As students streamed into the football stadium, Abner saw teachers who had taken off their shirts to help treat gunshot wounds.

Two school officers encountered the shooter within minutes of a report of shots fired, Hosey said. The suspect, a student at the school, immediately surrendered and was arrested. He is being charged as an adult with murder. Authorities said the weapon was an assault rifle.

The teen was questioned after the FBI received anonymous tips in May 2023 about online threats to commit an unspecified school shooting, the agency said in a statement.

The FBI was able to contain the threats and refer the case to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, which borders Barrow County.

The sheriff’s office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were shotguns in the house but the teen didn’t have unescorted access to them. The teen also denied making threats online.

The sheriff’s office alerted local schools to monitor the teen, but there was no probable cause for an arrest or further action, the FBI said.

Hosey said the state Department of Family and Child Services had previously had contact with the teen and would investigate whether that was related to the shooting.

Authorities are still investigating how the suspect obtained the weapon used in the shooting and how he got it into the school in Barrow County, a rapidly urbanizing area on the edge of the ever-expanding metropolitan area of ​​Atlanta.

During an afternoon press conference, Smith broke down in tears as he began to speak, saying he was born and raised in the community and that his children attend the school.

“My heart aches for these children. My heart aches for our community,” he said. “But I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county. I want that to be very clear and known. Love will prevail over what happened today.”

It was the the last among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have fueled heated debates about gun control and rattled parents whose children grow up practicing active shooter drills in their classrooms. But they have done little to improve the nation’s gun laws.

Before Wednesday there were 29 mass murders in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in these homicides, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

Last year, 217 people died in 42 mass killings, making 2023 one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country.

Landon Culver, an 11th-grader in Winder, said Wednesday he was coming out of math class to get some water when he heard gunshots and then saw someone wearing a black hoodie and holding a long gun.

“I didn’t really stay to watch for long,” he said.

Instead, he ran back inside and locked the door. The class gathered in the dark back and waited for the frenzy to end. Culver listened to the gunshots that rang out in the building.

“You just wonder which one of the two is your best friends or who do you love?” he said.

Later, police officers arrived and escorted the students out. As they exited the building, Culver saw “several people who had been shot.”

“You hear about these kinds of things, but you never think it’s going to happen to you until it happens.”

When Erin Clark, 42, got a text from her son Ethan, a senior, saying there was an active shooter, she ran from her job at the Amazon warehouse to school. The two texted, “I love you,” and Clark prayed for her as she drove.

When the main road to the school was blocked, she parked and ran with other parents. They were led to the football field and in the midst of the chaos, Clark found Ethan sitting in the stands.

Clark said her son was writing a paper in class when he first heard gunfire. He worked with his classmates to barricade the door and hide.

“I’m so proud of him for doing that,” she said. “He was so brave.”

“I’m scared to send him back,” Clark said. “I don’t know what to do.”

Traffic to the school was backed up for more than a mile as parents tried to get to their children. Barrow County schools will remain closed for the rest of the week as they cooperate with the investigation, but grief counseling is available.

“It’s just outrageous that parents in our country, in the United States of America, have to send their children to school every day worrying whether their child is going to come home alive,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at a campaign rally in New Hampshire.

In a social media post, former President Donald Trump said: “These beloved children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who canceled a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas and returned to the state, said in a statement: “This is a day that every parent dreads, and Georgians everywhere will hug their children even tighter tonight because of this painful event.”

Apalachee High School opened in 2000 and has an enrollment of about 1,900 students, according to Georgia education officials.

On Wednesday night, hundreds gathered at Jug Tavern Park in downtown Winder for a vigil. Volunteers handed out candles, as well as water, pizza and tissues. Some knelt as a Methodist minister led the crowd in prayer after a Barrow County commissioner read a Jewish prayer of condolence.

Some wore sports uniforms from Apalachee’s cross-town rival, Winder-Barrow High School. At the end of the vigil, someone released balloons in the blue, gold and white of Apalachee.

Sophomore Shantal Sanvee, who was in a classroom where the gunfire occurred, said she saw “a lot of blood. And it was just, it was just horrible.”

“I don’t think I want to stay here much longer,” Sanvee said.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of teacher Christina Irimie’s first name.

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Associated Press reporters Sharon Johnson and Mike Stewart in Winder; Beatrice Dupuy in New York; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; and Charlotte Kramon, Kate Brumback and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed.