WINDER, US: A 14-year-old boy killed four people, including two students, and wounded nine more when he opened fire at a high school in the US state of Georgia on Wednesday, law enforcement said. The suspected shooter — also a student at the school — had been brought to the FBI’s attention more than a year ago for threats to commit a school shooting, the agency said.

He was taken into custody after Wednesday’s shooting and will be tried as an adult on murder charges, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. Two teachers were also among the dead.

After the latest chapter in America’s gun violence crisis — nearly 400 mass shootings this year alone, by one tally — people gathered at a sports field outside Apalachee High School, some forming a circle with their arms linked. “Our school resource officer engaged him,” county sheriff Jud Smith told reporters, referring to law enforcement officers employed to work at US schools.

“The shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up that it would end with an OIS — an officer-involved shooting. He gave up, got on the ground, and the deputy took him into custody.”

Smith said police did not yet know if the shooter singled out specific people as targets, adding later that the nine wounded were expected to recover. The two students killed were also 14 years old, authorities said.

After the suspected shooter was brought to the attention of the FBI, the county sheriff’s office interviewed his father and the then 13-year-old suspect, who denied the threats, before flagging the child to school officials for monitoring. Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said the shooter used an “AR-platform style weapon” and that authorities were investigating how he brought the gun into the school.

Some in the school initially thought it was just another shooter drill, one student told AFP, referring to the exercises common in US schools. “Everyone just thought it was a fake drill until my teacher said we didn’t get an email,” Alexsandra Romeo said.

“She got us all in a little corner and everyone was just hugging each other, I had some of my friends crying. Until two police officers came in with their guns and told us that this is not a drill and that we’re still not safe.” Another student, 17-year-old Stephanie Folgar, described hearing “loud bangs” and panicking students hiding in the bathrooms and closet.

“It’s scary knowing that that could’ve been you,” she said. One student told local media that he saw blood on the floor and a body as he was led out of the building by authorities. The shooting occurred near the town of Winder, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta, the state capital. Earlier, school authorities were reported to have sent a message to parents saying they were enforcing a “hard lockdown after reports of gunfire.”

After the all-clear was given, parents were invited to the school to be reunited with their children, with long lines of vehicles visible outside. School shootings have become a sadly regular occurrence in the United States, where about a third of adults own a firearm and regulations on purchasing even powerful military-style rifles are lax. — AFP