Georgia school shooting leaves at least 4 dead and dozens hurt as cops take suspect into custody: Live updates

Kamala Harris described the school shooting in Georgia as “a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies” as she addressed supporters in New Hampshire on Wednesday.

“Our hearts are with all the students teachers and their families, she said.

“This is a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that every day in our country in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.

“We gotta stop it and we have to end this epidimeic of gun violence in our country once and for all – it doesn’t have to be this way.”

She added: “Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some of their big, beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter bursting through the door of the classrom – it does not have to be this way.”

In a statement from Joe and Jill Biden following the shooting in Georgia, the president said that the US could not “continue to accept this as normal.”

“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” the statement read.

“What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.

“Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal.”

CNN reports that the shooter at Apalachee High School is believed to be a 14-year-old boy, citing a law enforcement source.

The source said it is not yet known whether the teen attended that school. The GBI said previously that the suspect was alive and in custody, contrary to reports that they had been “neutralized.”

Zoe Gray, an 11th grade student at Apalachee High School recalled how her class was “having a normal” day before students received a “hard lockdown” alert on their phones.

“I thought I was gonna die. It was like, it was so close – you here ‘bang bang’ kina like they were trying to get in a door,” she told News 4 San Antonio. “Then you hear the police say ‘get the eff down’.

She continued: “I wanted to get out, I’m a very nervous person and I wanted to get home… I was holding some random kid’s hand my face was in someone’s butt.”

Zoe praised her teachers’ “phenomenal” response to the incident.

“We were just having a normal day it wasn’t anything different – it was just normal, bang bang bang – hard lockdown,” she said. “It’s something you never think will happen, you pray about it – Lord let me go to school safe,” she said.

In an update on social media the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) confirmed that four people had been killed in the school shooting in Barrow County on Wednesday.

The Bureau added that an additional nine taken to various hospitals with injuries and that the suspect was “in custody and alive.”

“Reports that the suspect has been ‘neutralized’ are inaccurate,” the GBI statement said.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said that the process of finding answers as to why the shooting at Apalachee High School could “take days.”

“We are asking for your patience … please let us get the facts that we need to make sure we get this right,” he said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

“This is going to take multiple days for us to get answers as to what happened and why this happened.”

CNN reports that the shooting suspect is “school-aged” but uncertain whether they attended Apalachee High School.