STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We have learned some of the names behind the numbers of a mass shooting in Georgia. We heard yesterday that a teenage gunman killed four people at Apalachee High School outside Atlanta. Now we know more about the gunman, and we also know the names of the dead. Jeremy Redmon is a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, part of that newspaper's team covering this story. He joins us from Georgia. Good morning, sir.
JEREMY REDMON: Good morning.
INSKEEP: I'm just going to give you a minute here. Two teachers killed. Two students killed. Will you tell us their names and what you know about them?
REDMON: Yes. The two teachers are Richard Aspinwall - excuse me - and Cristina Irimie. The two students are both 14, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. We know the most about Aspinwall, 39-year-old math teacher and football assistant coach. We understand he was hired as Apalachee's defensive coordinator before the 2023 season. He's from Rome, previously coached at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville and at Dunwoody High School. A GoFundMe account has been set up for his wife and their two daughters.
INSKEEP: I'm feeling obliged to just note for people who don't know a lot about the geography of Georgia, from Rome - you're talking about the city of Rome in northwest Georgia?
REDMON: Yeah, northwest Georgia. Yep.
INSKEEP: OK. So a 39-year-old assistant coach. He's the one who's best known. There are three other victims - another teacher and two students. And we're being able to see photographs of these individuals killed. What else do you know about them? Go on.
REDMON: There were nine others injured, by the way. And they're all expected to survive.
INSKEEP: That's great. I'm glad to hear that update. Now, we learned something last evening about the gunman. And I say gunman. I feel like that's not even the right word when we're talking about a 14-year-old, but here we are. The FBI made a statement about prior contact with this person. What happened? When did he come to the notice of the FBI?
REDMON: Yeah. So in May of 2023, the FBI received anonymous tips about threats of a school shooting made on an online gaming site. The threats didn't identify the school or when it would happen, but they contained pictures of guns, we understand. The investigators tracked the post to Jackson County, Ga., where the sheriff's deputies there continued to investigate. The suspect in this case was 13 at the time, and he was interviewed along with his father, and no one was charged.
INSKEEP: The fact that they were interviewed. You picture someone from the local sheriff's office going to the house, I guess, talking to the father, talking to the son, knowing that there were guns in the house, the father saying, well, the guns are secure, and nothing happened here. It's poignant. It's painful to think about them being so close to being able to head something off, and a year later, this happens.
REDMON: Yeah. A little more detail here. The FBI said the father stated he had hunting guns in the house but that the subject - suspect in this case did not have access to them in an unsupervised way. The suspect denied making any threats, and the Jackson Sheriff's Office alerted local schools at the time and said that the suspect was monitored. The sheriff in Barrow County, here where this incident occurred yesterday, said that during the course of the investigation, the gaming site threats could not be substantiated.
INSKEEP: Where does this investigation go now?
REDMON: Yeah. So here's a little bit about what's ahead - is we know from the GBI that he'll be charged with murder and tried as an adult. We understand he's being held at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center. That's in north Georgia. We're awaiting his first court appearance.
INSKEEP: OK, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, of course. Jeremy Redmon of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, thanks so much.
REDMON: Thank you. My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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