Community comes together to comfort each other and mourn victims of Georgia school shooting

MONROE, Ga. — Two days after a 14-year-old student allegedly shot and killed two classmates and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, a still-grieving community gathered to put its collective arms around each other.

Officials at neighboring Monroe Area High School volunteered its sprawling campus to host a vigil Friday, and thousands of people — many not even connected to the victims or Apalachee High — shed tears and embraced the memory of the fallen students and educators.

Rain forced the vigil to be moved inside the school’s gym and packed the bleachers. The 48-minute event, which featured several religious leaders — including Tommy Fountain Sr., pastor at 1025 Church in Monroe — was mostly upbeat, but also emotional, with many attendees stepping out of the gymnasium to shed their tears. Others cried where they sat.

In both cases, people immediately came to their comfort with hugs and encouraging words.

With tears streaming down her face, Pamela Parks, a high school counselor in nearby Gwinnett County, said she was drawn to the vigil because of the nature of the tragedy.

“When you lose anyone connected to a school, it’s so horrible, so tragic, and we all grieve, we all feel it,” Parks said. Being present allowed her an opportunity to “just spread support and love because with something like this, we all grieve. And sometimes you don’t have to say much; just be there and let them cry it out.”

Two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, were killed in the shooting Wednesday. Nine others were wounded. 

The football team held a private vigil Thursday for Aspinwall, a defensive line coach on the school’s football team.

“He was my coach and it’s tough to know he won’t be coming back,” said Isaiah Hooks, 15, a defensive lineman. “He was a kind man, always working hard. It’s a loss for us because he was a good human being.”

Earlier Friday, the suspect appeared in Barrow County Superior Court, where he is being treated as an adult on four counts of felony murder. He will not face the death penalty. 

His father, Colin Gray, 54, appeared in the same courtroom and was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. He was told he could face a maximum of 180 years in prison if convicted on all charges. 

Two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News Thursday night that Gray gave his son an AR-15 style rifle as a gift.

Gray had gifted his son the weapon at some point after the pair were interviewed by law enforcement officials in May 2023 in connection with reported online threats to carry out a school shooting, the two law enforcement sources said.

The teenager was not arrested after that interview because he could not be tied to an online account that made the threats, legal documents show.

The Grays were barely mentioned at the vigil, which followed a memorial service at Jug Tavern Park in Winder, about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, earlier Friday evening. The events were all about the victims and “survivors,” said Andrew Conley of Winder.

“We may not have been in the school or may not have even had a student at the school. But it’s close to all of us,” he said. “We’re all survivors because we’re one community.”

Some members of Apalachee High’s football team attended the late vigil. They were brought to the gym floor and surrounded by clergy as a pastor prayed for them.

“We need prayers,” Hooks said. “We are OK, but not OK. But we do feel the love and support of the community since it — the tragedy — happened.”

Fountain told the players: “I know how difficult this must be, but I say to you, strap that helmet on, put those pads on. And you play like you’ve never played before.”

The crowd cheered.

But there was no escaping the trauma. Parks said the tragedy of a school shooting was dramatically different from the situations she worked when students were killed in car accidents. 

“That’s crushing,” she said. “But when you have another student come into the school and shoot classmates and teachers, it’s so hard to overcome. Those students have to go back into the building. How do they do that?”