A classmate of Colt Gray, the deranged school shooter who murdered four and injured at least nine others at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia on Wednesday, spoke about her experience following the tragic attack at her school.
Four individuals—two students and two teachers—were pronounced dead at the scene, and Gray was taken into custody after surrendering to the police. Gray is expected to appear in court on Friday, where he will officially be charged as an adult.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, a search of Gray’s home uncovered disturbing evidence of the young boy’s obsession with mass shootings, including the 2018 Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed.
Further, the suspect was known to the FBI, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, and local schools as early as May 2023 after anonymous tipsters revealed “online threats to commit a school shooting” accompanied by photographs of guns from a Discord account associated with Gray, according to FBI Atlanta.
This attack also comes after an unidentified individual warned the high school via phone earlier in the morning that it would be the first of five schools targeted with violence.
The classmate who spoke to CNN, identified as 16-year-old Lyela Sayarath, a junior at Apalachee High School, said that Gray’s behavior “fit the description” of a school shooter. “He never really talked. He was pretty quiet,” Sayarath said. “He wasn’t there most times; either he just didn’t come to school, or he just would skip class. But even when he would have talked, it was one-word answers or just short statements.”
She continued, “When you think of like shooters and how they act or things that they do, it’s usually the quiet kid, or like that’s the stereotype for it to be, and he was the one that fit that description in our class.”
Sayarath also revealed that “as soon as they didn’t let him in, I don’t know, I already kind of had a feeling it was gonna happen, and it was him,” adding, “as soon as they didn’t let him in, and you hear the gunshots, you kind of like, know.” Though it is unclear exactly what she meant, it appears that the student expected Gray to commit violence against his peers. How did the school, the FBI, and local police miss the clear warning signs, as described by the student, coupled with past threats by the student?
While his mental health background and psychiatric drug history are still unknown, something is clearly wrong with this kid based on his introverted and withdrawn behaviors and his reported “obsession” with notorious school shootings.
Cofounder of AbleChild, a nonprofit fighting for transparency in child drug “treatment” and psychiatric services, Sheila Matthews told The Gateway Pundit,
“This young girl observed more about Cotl Gray’s behaviors than the mental health experts in the school system. In her short interview she described a withdrawn disconnected student that came and went as he pleased from the classroom with a clear communication problem with one-word answers. The interesting fact is that the public gets more information from other students and neighbors about the killer than from those in-charge of their education heavily funded by taxpayers. All we hear from the lawmakers and the media, is a clamor for more mental health funding. As the school and police hide behind privacy laws, other students often know exactly who potentially is on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs, the side effects are not hard to miss. There is no shortage of mental health access or money.”
The student later revealed that the campus lockdown alert “wasn’t instant,” despite someone at the school “looking for him already” and reports that “toward the end of her Algebra class, Lyela said someone over the loudspeaker told her teacher to check her email.” It would seem that the school was prepared for something to go wrong before the shooting started. Additionally, per Fox, “Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Wednesday night that teachers at Apalachee High School are individually armed with a Centegix ID which alerts law enforcement officers of an active incident when a button is pressed.” Still, the student said it took “maybe a couple minutes” after the gunshots began for the alert to notify teachers of the situation.
Lyela Sayarath recounted the events that occurred in her Algebra class prior to and during the young man’s killing spree. Per CNN, “She said Colt left the classroom at the beginning of their Algebra 1 class around 9:45 a.m. local time. Lyela thought Colt was going to the bathroom, but he didn’t take a pass, so she assumed he was skipping class, she said.” The violence erupted about 45 minutes later, just before 10:30 a.m.
Watch below:
Classmate: I just remember, like the moment that it happened, he was at the door, and they—I knew they were looking for him already, but he was at the door, and they almost let him in, until they backed up, and then he turned away, and that’s when you hear, like the first rounds of fire…[The doors] lock automatically, so you have to be let in to come back into our classroom. So I think he wanted to come to us first… to shoot us.
Reporter: And then he was at the door, a student went to open the door, and then what happened?
Classmate: She backed away. I think she saw him, or maybe somebody said something, but I’m pretty sure she saw that he had a gun, and so she backed away.
Reporter: So she was about to let him into the class, you think to shoot the students, saw that he had a gun, did not let him in. What happened next?
Classmate: He turns to the classroom, to what would have been my right, and he just starts to shoot, and you hear, like, about 10 to 15 rounds back to back.
Reporter: What did you hear? What did you think was going on in those moments?
Classmate: As soon as they didn’t let him in, I don’t know, I already kind of had a feeling it was gonna happen, and it was him, but as soon as they didn’t let him in, and you hear the gunshots, you kind of like, know… He never really talked. He was pretty quiet. He wasn’t there most times; either he just didn’t come to school, or he just would skip class. But even when he would have talked, it was one-word answers or just short statements…. When you think of like shooters and how they act or things that they do, it’s usually the quiet kid, or like that’s the stereotype for it to be, and he was the one that fit that description in our class.
Reporter: How quickly from the moment that you heard the gunshots go off to the hard lockdown alert going on the screens, letting everyone else in the school know that something had gone wrong? How long did that take, do you recall?
Classmate: Maybe a couple minutes, but it wasn’t instant.
