This is a developing story.

Colt Gray, the alleged gunman who opened fire at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia, killed four people and injured at least nine Wednesday morning when he began shooting at innocent victims inside the school, police say.

Officials said the four victims killed were two students, Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and Christian Angulo, 14, and two teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irmie.

Gray, a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School and the sole suspect, opened fire using an “AR-platform style weapon,” according to GBI Director Chris Hosey.

During a press conference Wednesday evening, Hosey said that officials are still investigating where Gray obtained the weapon.

GEORGIA SCHOOL SHOOTING: LIVE UPDATES

A joint statement from the FBI’s Atlanta field office and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office was released on Wednesday and revealed that law enforcement received an anonymous tip in 2023 about online threats regarding a possible school shooting.

The subject referred to in the statement was a 13-year-old who “is the same subject in custody related to today’s shootings at Apalachee High School,” the FBI said.

“The FBI referred this information to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for action,” Hosey said. 

“The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office identified and located Gray, who is our suspect in this case. They conducted an investigation at that time and there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action. This is not recent. This is in the past, but we wanted to bring that to your attention because we are pursuing that.”

In accordance with investigations, law enforcement is also looking into prior contact between Gray and his family and the Department of Family and Children Services, according to Hosey.

“This is still a very fluid investigation,” Hosey said. “It is still very active.”

At approximately 10:20 a.m., around two hours after classes at Apalachee had begun, the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of an active shooter.

“Within minutes, law enforcement was on scene as well as two school resource officers assigned here to the school,” Hosey said Wednesday afternoon. 

“Once they encountered the subject, the subject immediately surrendered to these officers, and he was taken into custody,” Hosey added.

APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS RECOUNT HORROR OF DEADLY SHOOTING

Cars are parked on the sides of a road as law enforcement officers work at the scene of a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, U.S. September 4, 2024.  (REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage)

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said Wednesday night that teachers at Apalachee High School are individually armed with a Centegix ID which alerts law enforcement officers of an active incident when a button is pressed.

“The protocols at this school and this system activated today prevented this from being a much larger tragedy than what we had here today,” Hosey said.

“Those that are deceased are heroes in my book,” Hosey told reporters. “Those that are in the hospital recovering right now are heroes in my book.”

Hosey added that joined in heroism are the faculty and staff at Apalachee for their admirable efforts in acting quickly and protecting the lives of innocent students.

An ambulance departs Apalachee High School after a shooting at the school Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Winder, Ga.   (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

GEORGIA HIGH SCHOOL WHERE DEADLY SHOOTING HAPPENED GETS WAVE OF EMOTIONAL RESPONSES FROM FOOTBALL RIVALS

Smith advised that Gray is being held at a detention center and will be transported to Regional Youth Detention Centers (RYDC) in Dalton. 

He will be charged with murder and prosecuted as an adult, according to Hosey.

“When someone preys on kids, it’s tragic,” Smith said. “Pure evil did what happened today.”

Local law enforcement is coordinating both the investigation and charges with District Attorney Brad Smith of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit.

“The priority right now for us, within this investigation, is to gather all the facts,” Hosey said. “This is a murder investigation.”

Surviving victims have been taken to local hospitals to be treated for various degrees of injury, according to law enforcement.

A Polk County, Florida, attorney was arrested for stealing nearly $2 million from a trust set up for a Pennsylvania brother and sister by their now-deceased father.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a press conference on Thursday afternoon that 47-year-old Jason Penrod of Family Elder Law has been arrested and charged with first-degree felony grand theft of over $100,000.

Judd said that his office had received complaints on July 25 and July 29 about Penrod that are still under investigation and pending the return of bank records.

But on Aug. 2, a complaint was filed with the Pennsylvania State Police, accusing Penrod of ripping off a brother and a sister who had a trust from their now-deceased father.

FLORIDA 9-YEAR-OLD DIED AFTER FATHER’S GIRLFRIEND DIRECTED ROTTWEILER TO ATTACK HER: SHERIFF

Judd said that Penrod had flown to Pennsylvania to look the trustees in the eye and say, “I took your money. Not only did I take your money, I took $1.7 million. I wiped out the trust. But I’m going to pay it back.”

The sheriff also said Penrod told the siblings he had a gambling addiction and gambled the money away at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa.

After Penrod blamed the loss of money on his gambling addiction, he then said he would pay it back with interest like a “short-term-loan,” Judd said.

FLORIDA MOM CHARGED WITH FOUR-YEAR-OLD SON’S MURDER OVER A DECADE AFTER HIS DEATH DURING UNSUPERVISED VISIT

Polk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd said during a press conference that attorney Jason Penrod swindled over $1.5 million from a trust for a pair of siblings in Pennsylvania whose now-deceased father had set up. (Polk County Sheriff Facebook)

The suspect also allegedly provided a litany of excuses, Judd explained, saying that he had repressed memories, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma, numbness and stress.

When Penrod returned, he allegedly checked himself into a facility to be treated for his gambling addiction, and as the investigation continued, Judd’s investigators learned that there were at least two more victims, bringing the number of victims to four, and the total loss to about $4 million.

Judd said Penrod had agreed to give up his law license before refiling so he can make the money to pay it back.

FLORIDA MAN STABBED OFF-DUTY POLICE OFFICER WHO TRIED TO STOP ROBBERY, STOLE PATROL CAR: COURT DOCS

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd alleged that attorney Jason Penrod gambled away millions of dollars put aside in trust funds. (Matthias Kulka)

“This guy’s delusional, among all of his other excuses,” Judd said.

The sheriff said his investigators and the state’s attorney are going to do what they can to send Penrod to prison “for a very long time.”

The one crime he has been charged with so far, grand theft of over $100,000, carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

Adding to the number of excuses Penrod allegedly gave for draining the account, Judd said the suspect considered suing the Hard Rock for letting him gamble there.

“Now, you tell me that this guy doesn’t have a hitch in his giddy up,” Judd said. “He’s got about five brain cells, and three of them he left in the Hard Rock. And now, he’s locked up and going to prison. That’s our goal.”

CRUISE PASSENGERS 3 MONTHS INTO EXPENSIVE THREE-YEAR EXCURSION STILL HAVEN’T SET SAIL

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he plans to send to prison an attorney who swindled millions from a trust fund. (iStock)

Judd provided additional details about the alleged swindles that Penrod is accused of conducting.

One of the victims is a 93-year-old woman whose husband and two sons died. One of the sons had left his mother a trust to help take care of her. That money is now at the Hard Rock, according to Judd.

“Jason stole the money, and by his own confession, he was spending the money at the Hard Rock,” the sheriff said. “Now he’s trying to hide behind mental illness. He’s not mentally ill. He’s a thief. He’s an absolute thief.”

Judd said the investigation into Penrod is underway, and it is unknown how many other cases or victims there may be.

He also said there may be people who lost money and do not even know they lost the money because they get paid out only once or twice a year.

Still, Judd alleges that Penrod stole millions of dollars.

“The worst kind of criminal is the one that hides behind a coat and a tie and steals money with a law license or a professional license of any kind,” Judd said. “So, at the end of the day, Jason, you’re not going to have a royal flush, but you have a jailhouse flush that’s guaranteed from us.”

A South Carolina death row inmate scheduled to be executed later this month is urging the state Supreme Court to delay his execution to allow his lawyers to argue that his co-defendant who testified against him lied about having no plea deal in exchange for his testimony.

Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, is set to be executed on Sept. 20 for the 1997 killing of store clerk Irene Graves during a string of robberies in Greenville. Owens also killed his cellmate at the Greenville County Jail after his conviction in 1999, but before his sentencing.

In addition to the argument over the plea agreement, attorneys for Owens said in court papers filed Friday that a juror observed an electronic stun device Owens had to wear in court to assure good behavior and that a judge never addressed why he was required to wear it, according to the Associated Press.

This comes as South Carolina seeks to put Owens to death, which would mark the state’s first execution in 13 years after an involuntary pause over struggles in recent years obtaining lethal injection drugs.

SOUTH CAROLINA’S FIRST EXECUTION IN MORE THAN 13 YEARS SET FOR NEXT MONTH

Lawyers for the state have until Thursday to answer Owens’ request to delay his execution while he presents new evidence to a judge and demands a new trial.

The bar is typically high to grant new trials after death row inmates exhaust all their appeals. Owens’ lawyers said previous attorneys scrutinized his case carefully, but the new evidence only came up in interviews as his potential execution neared.

Co-defendant Steven Golden testified that Owens shot Graves in the head because she was unable to open the safe at the Greenville store 27 years ago.

The store had surveillance video, but it did not show the shooting clearly. Prosecutors never found the weapon used in the shooting and failed to show any scientific evidence linking Owens to the killing.

Golden told jurors at the trial in 1999 that he did not have a plea agreement with prosecutors and could still be sentenced to death or life in prison after testifying. 

However, in a sworn statement signed Aug. 22, Golden said he reached a side deal with prosecutors, an admission Owens’ attorneys said might have changed the minds of jurors who believed his testimony.

“My written plea agreement said the death penalty and life without parole were still possible outcomes and there were no specific guarantees about what my sentence would be,” Golden wrote in his statement. “That wasn’t true. We had a verbal agreement that I would not get the death penalty or life without parole.”

This undated photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state’s death chamber in Columbia, South Carolina, including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP, File)

Golden was sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, court records show.

Addressing the electronic stun device Owens was wearing during trial, Owens’ lawyers said courts have long required judges to explain to juries why defendants are wearing visible restraints, such as shackles, and that there must be debate by the judge balancing courtroom security versus the impact the device might have on a fair trial.

Owens’ lawyers said the judge failed to do this in his trial.

Once one of the busiest states for executions, South Carolina has not carried out the death penalty since 2011 due to trouble in recent years obtaining lethal injection drugs after its supply expired because of pharmaceutical companies’ concerns that they would have to disclose that they had sold the drugs to state officials. But the state legislature passed a shield law last year allowing officials to keep lethal injection drug suppliers private.

South Carolina previously used a mixture of three drugs, but will now use one drug, the sedative pentobarbital, for lethal injections in a protocol similar to that of the federal government.

Lethal injection, electrocution and the new option of a firing squad are all expected to be available for Owens’ execution. Owens has until Sept. 6 to choose the method for his execution. He signed his power of attorney over to his lawyer, Emily Paavola, to make that decision for him.

If Owens does not make a decision, he would be sent to the electric chair, and he does not want to die that way, Paavola said. Lawyers for the state asked the South Carolina Supreme Court to rule if Owens’ lawyer can make that decision for him.

PROSECUTORS TO SEEK DEATH PENALTY FOR PHD STUDENT ACCUSED OF KILLING FRIEND’S BABY IN PENNSYLVANIA

Once one of the busiest states for executions, South Carolina has not carried out the death penalty since 2011. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

“Mr. Owens has a long-standing, deeply held religious conviction that physically signing the election form is taking an active role in bringing about his own death and is thus akin to suicide. Mr. Owens’ Muslim faith teaches that suicide is a sin, and it is forbidden,” Paavola wrote in court papers.

The state Supreme Court also said on Friday it would wait at least five weeks between executions.

The court rejected a request from lawyers for the condemned inmates to set three months between executions to relieve pressure on prison staff that could result in mistakes and give lawyers time to dedicate time exclusively to each prisoner’s case.

Instead, the court promised five weeks between executions. Under state law and a timeline first issued when the justices ruled executions could restart last month, the court could issue execution orders every week on Friday if it wants. Prison officials told the state that four weeks would be acceptable.

South Carolina currently has 32 inmates on death row.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.