‘He wanted to come to us first’: Georgia student who sat next to suspect in class reveals close call during school shooting

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A student has revealed her close call with the suspected Georgia high school shooter after she sat next to him in class that day.

Four victims – two teachers and two 14-year-old students – were killed in the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder on Wednesday, after a teenage gunman went on a rampag with an AR-style rifle.

The suspect, identified by authorities as 14-year-old student Colt Gray, was arrested on the scene and is facing murder charges as an adult.

Fellow student Lyela Sayarath spoke out in the aftermath of the shooting to reveal how she and her fellow students may have narrowly avoided death.

Speaking to CNN outside the high school, Sayarath said she was in algebra class that morning sat “elbow to elbow” with Gray and recalled him leaving the classroom.

He then returned and tried to get back into the classroom but the door was locked.

When someone went to open the door to him, they “backed up” – presumably having noticed the firearm – in a decision that may have saved many lives.

“He was at the door and they almost let him in, until they backed up. And then he turned away and that's when you hear the first round of fire,” she said.

“He wanted to come to us first,” she added.

She explained that the classroom doors lock automatically when closed, and so in order to re-enter the alleged shooter could not get back in without someone opening the door from the inside.

Speaking about her classmate who had gone to let him in, Sayarath said: “I’m pretty sure she saw that he had a gun and so she backed away.”

Once he wasn’t able to get back in, she said he appeared to turn to the classroom next door where he opened fire.

“You hear about 10 to 15 rounds back to back,” Sayarath said.

“As soon as they didn’t let him in, and you hear the gunshots, you kind of know,” she said.

“When we heard it, most people just dropped to the floor and kind of crawled in an area, piling on top of each other, lost a shoe when they were trying to get to a corner.”

“The teacher turned off the lights,” she continued. “But we all just kind of piled together.”

Sayarath also said she pushed desks in front of her teacher and classmates: “I was just telling people, push desks in front of you, block in front of you, get low – things like that.”

Sayarath said the school does not have any metal detectors and that it was a “couple minutes” before the hard lockdown message appeared on screens warning everyone inside the school about the shooting.

She finally knew the horror was over “when the cops came in the room and asked us to put our hands up, asked us if we had anything.”

She said: “A little bit after that they let us all out. But when it was kind of quiet, you hear cops shouting but it’s kind of quiet. They are no more gunshots.”

When asked what she would say to her classmate now accused of carrying out the deadly high school attack, she said: “I’m not sure. I want to know why he did it.”

She described Gray as “quiet,” saying he “never really talked,” and did not attend class very often.

“Even when he would have talked it was one word answers or statements,” she said.

The four victims killed in the attack have now been named as 14-year-olds Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and maths teachers Christina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall.

The FBI said that Gray, who is set to be charged with murder and tried as an adult, was investigated by police last year for allegedly making online threats and posting images of guns online in May 2023.

The suspect, who was then 13, was interviewed by Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputies at the time where he denied making the threats, according to the FBI.

His father also spoke to investigators then, saying that the family had hunting guns in the house but that the teenager did not have “unsupervised access” to them.

No further action was taken.