Apalachee High School Shooting Suspect Was On FBI’s Radar Since Last Year

The FBI confirmed on Wednesday that the suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting, which killed four people in Winder, Georgia, had been on its radar since 2023 after several anonymous tips.

In May 2023, the FBI received several tips about online threats made about committing a school shooting at an unidentified place and time, the federal agency wrote in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the threats included photos of guns.

After the FBI identified that the threats were coming from Georgia, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office identified a 13-year-old boy as a possible suspect. In an interview with him and his father, the sheriff’s office learned that there were guns in their home for hunting but that the suspect in the threats did not have unsupervised access to them.

The teen denied making the online threats, but local schools were alerted about the threats so that the situation could be monitored.

“At that time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state and federal level,” the FBI wrote in its statement.

The now 14-year-old is accused of being the gunman Wednesday at Apalachee High, killing two students and two teachers and leaving nine hospitalized. There is no apparent relationship between the suspect and the victims.

The suspect, in custody after surrendering to a school resource officer, is expected to face murder charges, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations told reporters at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

It remains unclear how the school shooter obtained firearms.