The 14-year-old suspect has been charged as an adult in the shooting Wednesday outside Atlanta that killed four people and wounded nine. He is accused of using an assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers in the hallway outside his algebra classroom.

The same teenager was interviewed in May 2023 by a sheriff’s investigator from nearby Jackson County who received a tip from the FBI that the boy, then 13, “had possibly threatened to shoot up a middle school tomorrow.”

The tip came to the FBI from people in Australia and California who were concerned about comments made by a chat group user on the social media platform Discord, according to a Jackson County sheriff’s report obtained by The Associated Press.

The investigator urged the boy’s father to keep his firearms locked away and told him to keep his son out of school “until this matter could be resolved,” the report said. The boy’s last day before the summer break was a few days before that conversation.

The attack Thursday was the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to active-shooter drills. But there has been little change to national gun laws.

Classes were canceled Thursday at Apalachee High School, though some people came to pay respects by leaving flowers around the flagpole and kneeling in the grass with heads bowed. Among them was Linda Carter, who lives nearby. Though she has no children attending the school, Carter said the rampage left her angry and hurting.

“I’m upset, I’m crying constantly,” Carter said. “These kids shouldn’t have lost their lives. These parents, these adults, these teachers should not have lost their lives yesterday.”

When the suspect slipped out of class Wednesday, Lyela Sayarath figured her quiet classmate who recently transferred was skipping school again. But he returned later and wanted back into the room. Some students went to open the locked door but instead backed away.

“I’m guessing they saw something, but for some reason, they didn’t open the door,” Sayarath said.

The teen then turned the gun on people in a hallway, authorities said.

He has been charged in the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, according to Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey.

The teen was to be taken Thursday to a regional youth detention facility.

When the teen was not allowed back into his classroom, Sayarath said she heard a barrage of gunshots.

“It was about 10 or 15 of them at once, back to back,” she said.

The math students fell to the floor and crawled around, looking for a safe corner to hide.

Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes of a report that shots had been fired, Hosey said. The teen immediately surrendered and was taken into custody.

At least nine other people — eight students and one teacher at the school in Winder — were taken to hospitals. All were expected to survive, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said. Authorities were still looking into how the teen obtained the gun and got it into the school with about 1,900 students in a rapidly developing area on the edge of metro Atlanta’s ever-expanding sprawl.

“All the students that had to watch their teachers and their fellow classmates die, the ones that had to walk out of the school limping, that looked traumatized,” Sayarath said.

Kassidy Reed joined a steady stream of classmates seeking counseling Thursday at the school system offices. The 17-year-old senior said she struggled to sleep Wednesday night in the aftermath of the shootings.

“The first thing you wake up and think about is like, somebody lost the coach, somebody lost their dad, somebody lost their best friend,” Reed said.

Reed was taking a test Wednesday morning with a few others in a hallway when she heard gunshots just around a corner. A teacher across the hall opened a door so they could scramble inside a chemistry lab. Reed ducked under a table next to a classmate, whose cross necklace they both gripped as they prayed.

They were close enough to hear police order someone onto the ground, followed by what sounded a person being handcuffed. When officers escorted the lab students to safety, Reed said, she saw blood in the hallway and what looked like a disassembled firearm lying next to a body.

It was the 30th mass killing 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 those killings, which are defined as events in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

The teen had been interviewed 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 narrowed the threats down and referred to the case to the sheriff’s department in Jackson County, which is adjacent to Barrow County.

The sheriff’s office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting guns in the house but the teen did not have unsupervised access to them. The teen also denied making any online threats.

The sheriff’s office alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the teen, but there was no probable cause for arrest or additional action, the FBI said.

Hosey said the state Division of Family and Children’s Services also had previous contact with the teen and will investigate whether that has any connection with the shooting. Local news outlets reported that the teen’s family home in Bethlehem, Georgia, was searched Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, hundreds gathered at a park in downtown Winder for a candlelight vigil.

Christopher Vasquez, 15, said he attended to feel grounded and in a safe place. He was in band practice when the lockdown order was issued and hid with other students in a closet.

“Once we heard banging at the door and the SWAT (team) came to take us out, that’s when I knew that it was serious,” he said. “I just started shaking and crying.”

He finally settled down once outside the school. “I just was praying that everyone I love was safe,” he said.

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The high court’s conservative majority found that the Trump administration overstepped when it changed course from predecessors and banned bump stocks, which allow a rate of fire comparable to machine guns. The decision came after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with semiautomatic rifles equipped with the accessories.

The gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds into the crowd in 11 minutes, sending thousands of people fleeing in terror as hundreds were wounded and dozens killed.

The ruling thrust guns back into the center of the political conversation with an unusual twist as Democrats decried the reversal of a GOP administration’s action and many Republicans backed the ruling.

The 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas found the Justice Department was wrong to declare that bump stocks transformed semiautomatic rifles into illegal machine guns because, he wrote, each trigger depression in rapid succession still only releases one shot.

The ruling reinforced the limits of executive reach and two justices — conservative Samuel Alito and liberal Sonia Sotomayor — separately highlighted how action in Congress could potentially provide a more lasting policy, if there was political will to act in a bipartisan fashion.

Originally, imposing a ban through regulation rather than legislation during Donald Trump’s presidency took pressure off Republicans to act following the massacre and another mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Prospects for passing gun restrictions in the current divided Congress are dim.

President Joe Biden, who supports gun restrictions, called on Congress to reinstate the ban imposed under his political foe. Trump’s campaign team meanwhile, expressed respect for the ruling before quickly pivoting to his endorsement by the National Rifle Association.

As Trump courts gun owners while running to retake the presidency, he has appeared to play down his own administration’s actions on bump stocks, telling NRA members in February that “nothing happened” on guns during his presidency despite “great pressure.” He told the group that if he is elected again, “No one will lay a finger on your firearms.”

The 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas was carried out by a high-stakes gambler who killed himself, leaving his exact motive a mystery. A total of 60 people were killed in the shooting, including Christiana Duarte, whose family called Friday’s ruling tragic.

“The ruling is really just another way of inviting people to have another mass shooting,” said Danette Meyers, a family friend and spokesperson. “It’s unfortunate that they have to relive this again. They’re really unhappy.”

The opinion comes after the same Supreme Court conservative supermajority handed down a landmark decision expanding gun rights in 2022. The high court is also expected to rule in another gun case in the coming weeks, challenging a federal law intended to keep guns away from people under domestic violence restraining orders.

The arguments in the bump stock case, though, were less about Second Amendment rights and more about whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a Justice Department agency, had overstepped its authority.

Bump stocks are accessories that replace a rifle’s stock, the part that rests against the shoulder. Invented in the 2000s, they harness the gun’s recoil energy so that the trigger bumps against the shooter’s stationary finger, allowing the gun to fire at a similar speed as an automatic weapon.

The Supreme Court majority found that the 1934 law against machine guns defined them as weapons that could automatically fire more than one shot by a single function of the trigger. Bump stocks don’t fit that definition because “the trigger must still be released and reengaged to fire each additional shot,” Thomas wrote. He also pointed to over a decade of ATF’s findings that claimed bump stocks weren’t automatic weapons.

The plaintiff, Texas gun shop owner and military veteran Michael Cargill, applauded the ruling in a video posted online, predicting the case would have ripple effects by hampering other ATF gun restrictions. “I’m glad I stood up and fought,” he said.

In a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues, Justice Sotomayor said that bump stocks fit under the ordinary meaning of the law: “When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck,” she wrote. The ruling, she said, could hamstring the ATF and have “deadly consequences.”

ATF Director Steve Dettelbach echoed the sentiment, saying that bump stocks “pose an unacceptable level of risk to public safety.”

The high court took up the case after a split among lower courts. Under Republican President George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama, the ATF decided that bump stocks didn’t transform semiautomatic weapons into machine guns. The agency reversed those decisions at Trump’s urging. That was after the Las Vegas massacre and the Parkland, Florida shooting that left 17 dead.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have their own bans on bump stocks that aren’t expected to be affected by the ruling, though four state bans may no longer cover bump stocks in the wake of the ruling, according to the gun-control group Everytown.

Cargill was represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a group funded by conservative donors like the Koch network. His attorneys acknowledged that bump stocks allow for rapid fire but argued that they are different because the shooter has to put in more effort to keep the gun firing.

The Biden administration had argued that effort was minimal, and said the ATF came to the right conclusion on bump stocks after doing a more in-depth examination spurred by the Las Vegas shooting.

There were about 520,000 bump stocks in circulation when the ban went into effect in 2019, requiring people to either surrender or destroy them at a combined estimated loss of $100 million, the plaintiffs said in court documents.

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An exterior door at Robb Elementary School did not lock when it was closed by a teacher shortly before a gunman used it to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers, leaving investigators searching to determine why, state police said Tuesday.

State police initially said a teacher had propped the door open shortly before Salvador Ramos, 18, entered the school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.

They have now determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but then removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, said Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. But, Considine said, the door did not lock.

“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock,” Considine said.

Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since last Friday’s news conference when authorities first said that the door had been left propped open. Authorities did not state at that time what had been used to prop open the door.

Considine said the teacher initially propped the door open but ran back inside to get her phone and call 911 when Ramos crashed his truck on campus.

“She came back out while on her phone, she heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she saw him jump the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran back inside,” removing the rock when she did, Considine said.

San Antonio attorney Don Flanary told the San Antonio Express-News that the Robb Elementary School employee, whom he’s not naming, closed the door shut after realizing that a gunman was on the loose. She had initially propped it open to carry food from a car to a classroom, the attorney said.

“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting,” Flanary told the newspaper.

“She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked,” Flanary said.

Flanary did not immediately return telephone messages left at his office from The Associated Press.

Investigators are also still trying to interview Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who state police have said was the commander of the school shooting scene while it happened.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo treated the active scene as a hostage situation and as if children were no longer at risk, while 19 police officers waited in the school hallway outside the classroom where Ramos was.

McCraw called that the “wrong decision,” saying the focus of the investigation has shifted to Arredondo and the police response.

Other officers in the Uvalde city and schools police departments continue to sit for interviews and provide statements, but Arredondo has not responded to DPS requests for two days, Considine said.

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Three mass shootings in the U.S. over the Easter holiday weekend capped a monthlong spate of gun violence that has touched both big cities and small, rural communities across the nation.

The gunfire has rattled large population centers such as Dallas, Pittsburgh and Sacramento, California, as well as much smaller communities, including Hampton County, South Carolina, which has a population of 18,000, and Dumas, Arkansas, which is home to about 4,000 people.

A look at some of the major shootings:

DALLAS, March 19

Ten people were shot at a teen spring break party in Dallas and several others were injured as they tried to escape the chaos. One of the injured, an 18-year-old man, later died of his injuries. The gunfire happened at The Space Dallas event venue. Joe Morgan, who was working crowd control, told reporters that he heard gunshots being fired from outside the venue and later saw people with gunshot wounds to the chest, arms and legs.

DUMAS, Arkansas, March 19

More than two dozen people were hurt and one man was killed when two people got into a gunfight during a car show that’s part of an annual community event. Innocent bystanders were sprayed by gunfire, among them several children, two of whom were under the age of 2, Arkansas State Police Col. Bill Bryant said.

DALLAS, April 3

One person was killed and 15 others were wounded by gunfire during a concert at an outdoor field. The victims ranged in age from 13 to 29, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said. One person fired a gun into the air, then an argument broke out and another person fired in the crowd’s direction, Garcia said. The event didn’t have a permit, he said.

SACRAMENTO, California, April 3

Six people were killed and 12 wounded outside bars located a few blocks from the state Capitol in a gunfight involving at least five shooters from rival gangs, Sacramento police said. More than 100 rapid-fire gunshots echoed through the streets as terrified patrons ran for their lives and others were hit by bullets. Police said they identified at least five gunmen, but there may have been more. Police said at least two gangs were involved.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, April 10

A shooting inside a crowded nightclub in Cedar Rapids left a man and a woman dead and 10 others wounded. More than 100 people were inside the Taboo Nightclub and Lounge at the time, police said. Officers helped treat the people who were wounded and used their squad cars to rush several of the victims to hospitals.

NEW YORK CITY, April 12

A gunman set off smoke bombs and opened fire in a crowded subway car in Brooklyn, wounding 10 commuters and leaving the train car and a subway platform splattered in blood. After a 30-hour manhunt, police arrested a suspect near a McDonald’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side after a tip led them there. Part of the evidence in the case includes YouTube videos in which the suspect rants about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina, April 16

A gunman opened fire at a busy shopping mall in South Carolina’s capital city, wounding nine people, police said. Five other people were injured while trying to flee the Columbiana Centre. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 73, but none of their injuries was considered life-threatening, Columbia Police Chief W.H. “Skip” Holbrook said Saturday. Investigators believe those responsible knew each other, and that others were hurt when they began shooting at each other.

HAMPTON COUNTY, South Carolina, April 16

A shooting at a nightclub wounded at least nine people. The attack happened at Cara’s Lounge in Hampton County, according to South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division. Hampton County is located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Charleston.

PITTSBURGH, April 17

Two teenage boys were killed and at least eight people were wounded when a shooting broke out during a party at a short-term rental property. Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert said there was gunfire both inside and outside the rental home, “potentially back and forth.” Bullet casings found at the scene indicated handguns and one rifle were used, he said. Police believe there were multiple shooters.

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — It’s the big question looming over one of this year’s bloodiest mass shootings: Who opened fire at a crowded house party in Rochester, New York, on the last weekend of summer, killing two teenagers and wounding 14 other people?

Nearly a month a fter gunshots rang out just after midnight on Sept. 19, there have been no arrests, no rewards offered and little word from authorities on where the investigation stands. If the police have suspects in mind, they haven’t said so publicly. Nor have they told people who lost loved ones or were wounded themselves.

“I’m sure they’ll figure something out, but I don’t really know what information they have or anything else — what evidence they found on the scene,” said Emar Bouie, a 23-year-old recent college graduate who still struggles with movement in the arm where he was shot.

Rochester, a post-industrial city of about 206,000 people on the shores of Lake Erie, is still reeling from the revelation last month that police officers killed a Black man, Daniel Prude, in March by pressing him into the ground until he stopped breathing. City officials stoked outrage by staying quiet about the death for months.

Prude’s death exacerbated residents’ mistrust of the police department. The shooting — which ended the lives of Jaquayla Young and Jarvis Alexander, both 19 — has only added to the city’s collective pain.

“In terms of the city healing, we’re not there yet,” said Marlowe Washington, the pastor of Seneca United Methodist Church. “We’re nowhere near any form of healing and I don’t know how we’re going to get there yet.”

A police spokesperson, Jacqueline Shuman, said the shooting investigation is progressing and that detectives “are still in the process of sorting through the voluminous evidence.”

Shuman said the police department is working on the case with the county’s crime lab and prosecutors, as well as federal agencies including the U.S. attorney’s office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which typically helps local police trace guns.

The party was supposed to be a small gathering, but people from two other nearby parties went there in the early morning and an argument broke out. Three or four people opened fire, and police found more than 40 bullet casings at the scene. The wounded and the dead were all between the ages of 17 and 23.

Young, who was attending Monroe Community College, was captain of her high school’s cheerleading team and a member of the track team. Alexander, a sophomore at Alfred University, was on his high school’s football and track teams and won a state championship in the 4×100-meter relay.

“What happened to my son is just devastating. It doesn’t even seem real at this point,” said Alexander’s father, James Alexander. “He touched the heart of so many people and that’s really what I’m trying to absorb right now. Because his legacy is just amazing.”

Since the shooting, the city has been rocked further by Mayor Lovely Warren’s indictment on state campaign finance fraud charges, related to her last reelection campaign. The city council recently issued subpoenas in its investigation into Prude’s death. Protesters have continued to demonstrate in the city’s streets.

On Wednesday, there was another big development: Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, who retired from the police department in 2009 as a lieutenant, took over as the city’s interim police chief. In addition to the Herculean chore of reforming a force with a tattered reputation, she’ll be tasked with solving a shooting that has been described in local media as one of the most violent crimes in the city’s history.

Speaking at her swearing-in ceremony, she told residents: “We rise and fall together.”

Washington, in a telephone interview, called on the police department to be more transparent about the investigation and suggested that the city offer a reward to give reluctant witnesses an extra incentive to come forward.

“We need the city to step this up more to say we are not going to let this sit down, this will not be a cold or pre-cold case. We are going to up the ante,” Washington said.

James Alexander said he’s been so focused on mourning his son and supporting his family that he hasn’t had time to dwell on the investigation.

“There’s a lot of disaster and turmoil going on in the city of Rochester and something needs to be done about it, but as far as what’s going on in the police department and those things, I put my trust in the law,” said Alexander. “I have no objections to the way they do their job.”

Bouie said he too has faith — and patience.

“They’ll figure out something, whether it takes a year from now,” he said.

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