A 14-year-old student has been arrested following a shooting spree in a high school near Atlanta, Georgia, that left four dead, authorities said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The teenager surrendered quickly after police intervened, and will be charged with murder, Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said. He confirmed that the victims were two students and two teachers.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden called the school shooting, “another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris called for decisive action against gun violence. “It’s just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive,” she said in a campaign speech in the state of New Hampshire.
“We’ve got to stop it. It doesn’t have to be this way,” the Democratic presidential candidate said.
Former President Donald Trump responded on Wednesday by labelling the shooter a “sick and deranged monster.”
“These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster,” the Republican presidential candidate denounced on his social network, Truth Social.
Before Wednesday, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press (AP) and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University, AP reported.
At least 127 people had died in those killings, the US news agency revealed.
