Georgia school shooting: Students describe moment gunman opened fire, ‘I started shaking’

Terrified students of Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, have opened up about the moment a 14-year-old peer opened fire on Wednesday, September 4. Two students and two teachers died when Colt Gray opened fire, and at least nine others were hospitalised. Gray is in custody.

In the aftermath of the shooting, students have described the tragedy. Julie Sandoval said she heard five gunshots next to her. She and several other classmates hid in a corner until police arrived.

‘I prayed and I closed my eyes and tried to stay calm’

"I started shaking a lot and that's when I started crying as well. I was trying to text a lot of my friends but unfortunately, everything was down," Sandoval told CNN, adding that she texted her parents to tell them she loves them.

Laila Fohrman recalled thinking she "was going to die." "I prayed and I closed my eyes and tried to stay calm," Fohrman said.

Janice Martinez thought, at first, that someone was "playing around" in the hallways. "When this happened, I entered the class and then we were there for like, second period. So it was like during the middle of it, and I heard screaming and everything," Martinez said.

As the noise kept getting louder, Martinez began to realise something was not right. "I was like, 'No, no, guys.' Like, I told everybody to get down. Get down, because, like, you don't joke around with that," Martinez said.

One student told CNN affiliate WANF anonymously that she was in her second period class "when everything was happening." "I can just remember the announcements going on, saying that this is a lockdown, and then police came in there with their guns telling us that this is not a drill," she said.

The student went on to describe what she heard in the hallways. "I heard like the policemen were chasing the person up and down the hallways. You can hear the shooting but from afar," she said. "Then, after sitting in the classroom for like 10 minutes straight, that's when we can evacuate and move out of the school."

Another student said his heart was racing and he wanted to call his mother when the events unfolded. "Like, I don't know, it was just really, it was scary," he said. "Like, my heart was kind of racing. I didn't even have my phone or anything. So, like, I couldn't talk to my mom. I was just, I was just kind of scared."

Another student described being "scared out of my mind" as the shooting started. "I hear the gunshots, and then everyone ducks on dust, and the teacher is like flipping tables and stuff and barricading the door," the student said. "So, I was just scared out of my mind. I was like, what is happening?'"

Gray is set to be booked Wednesday night, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said. He will reportedly be charged with murder as an adult.

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