The teenager accused of Open fire at a Georgia high school He denied making any previous threats when questioned by police last year as they investigated online posts threatening a school shooting.
Ultimately, investigators did not have enough evidence to arrest him, according to a report obtained Thursday.
The 14-year-old suspect has been charged as an adult in Wednesday’s shooting outside Atlanta that killed four people and wounded nine. He is accused of using an assault rifle to kill two students and two teachers in the hallway outside his algebra classroom.
The same teen was interviewed in May 2023 by a police investigator in nearby Jackson County, who received a tip from the FBI that the then-13-year-old “had possibly threatened to shoot up a high school tomorrow.”
The tip came to the FBI from people in Australia and California who were concerned about comments made by a user of a chat group on the social media platform Discord, according to a Jackson County sheriff’s report obtained by The Associated Press.
The teen was asked about the threat and told a police investigator that “he would never say such a thing, even in jest,” the report said.
The investigator urged the boy’s father to keep his firearms locked away and asked him to keep his son away from school “until this matter could be resolved,” the report said. The boy’s last day before summer break was a few days before that conversation.
Thursday’s attack was the latest of dozens of school shootings in the United States in recent years, including particularly deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
The classroom killings have sparked heated debates over gun control and unnerved parents whose children grow up accustomed to mock attacks. But there has been little change in federal gun laws.
Classes were canceled Thursday at Apalachee High School, though some people turned out to lay flowers around the flagpole and offer their condolences by kneeling on the grass with their heads bowed.
Among them was Linda Carter, who lives nearby. Although she does not have children who attend the school, Carter said the incident left her shaken and hurt.
“I’m upset, I’m crying constantly,” Carter said. “These kids shouldn’t have lost their lives. These parents, these adults, these teachers shouldn’t have lost their lives yesterday.”
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