Lyela Sayarath is an 11th grader at Apalachee High School in the US state of Georgia. On Wednesday, her “shy” classmate, Colton Gray, opened fire inside the school, killing two classmates and two teachers. Sayarath and other students told American media about their “hell-like” moments during the shooting.

Sayarath tells CNN he was in algebra class, around 9:45 a.m. (2:45 p.m. in mainland Portugal), when Gray He got up and left the roomwithout justification. After 10am, he tried to enter again, but found a locked door; for security reasons, classroom doors cannot be opened from the outside when they are closed.

The shooter, just 14, went into the next room, where the door was open. Sayarath says he heard “one shot after another” as students sat in algebra class ran to the back of the roombehind the desks.

US: Two students and two teachers dead and nine injured in a shooting at a school in Georgia

The same protocol was followed by a student in the room where Gray shot. This young man, who was not identified, told local media that he was sitting by the door when he saw Gray with “a big gun.” He ran to the back of the room, where I heard “10 shots” and felt his “ears ringing.”

when the school entered isolation —another step in protocol in case of a shooting—Isabella Albes Cardenas and Jose Inciarte were taking an 11th grade Spanish class and They thought it was just another simulation.common in American schools. Inciarte told the New York Times that she only realized it was “real” when she heard “screams and people running down the hallway. But at the time I started crying, I got nervous,” Cárdenas shared.

Teachers who helped students and students who helped teachers

Four rooms away from where Gray fired, Stephen Kreyenbuhl, a 26-year-old teacher, was teaching a social studies class. At first, he also wasn’t sure if it was a simulation. Then he heard six gunshots. “My students were on the floor, some crying, some being comforted and some swearing,” he reported. As police cleared teachers and students from the school, Kreyenbuhl says he saw “a blood stain on the floor” in his hallway.

While this teacher was trying to comfort the students, Janice Martinez’s teacher “was shaking.” The student said they were in class when they started hearing screams, which they also devalued. “The noise got louder and I was the one who said ‘no guys, you all have to get down, I’m not joking,’” he shared with the media. Martinez says His companions began to cry and he had to comfort them until the police arrived..

Amari had to help her teacher after she was shot in the leg. “She said no one wanted to get up, so she got up and went to help the teacher,” said Abby Turner, a friend of Amari’s who found her outside the school, crying and with her shoes covered in blood.

“I love you” and “we’re on our way”: messages from mothers

Before it was all over and she had spoken to her friend, Abby Turner heard gunshots and saw the isolation be activated. It was 10:23 a.m. when he sent a message to his mother telling her it was not a simulation. “I can’t explain it, I’m shaking so much,” he wrote, in messages that his mother, Sonya Turner, showed to the Washington Post. In the family message group, the Abby’s younger sister, Isabella Faith, asked her what she should do.“Pray,” replied the mother, who sent a prayer to her daughters, followed by the message “keep praying, we are on our way, my father and I are on our way.”

Erin Clark also left work around the same time to head to Apalachee High School, where her son Ethan is a senior, after receiving a series of texts that read: “School shooting” “pf” “I’m not kidding.” “Shocked” and “terrified,” Clark told her son she was on her way. “I love you,” Ethan wrote. “I love you more, baby,” the mother replied.

Christian Scott didn’t text his mother, he called her crying. The 16-year-old was on his way to the school’s medical center when the announcement was made. isolation and, together with the nurse and other students, They barricaded the doors with stretchersHer sister is also a student at the same school and said that the moments before the police arrived were “hell.”

Evacuation and reunion with families.

Another student, Alexandra Romero, reports that the school was in isolation for about ten minutes, until the police arrived and led the students and teachers to the meeting point in case of emergency, the football fieldAfter the initial panic, some students posted this evacuation on social media.

Outside the police perimeter, the parents who came to the scene were Parking is prohibited near the school. Cars were abandoned more than 3 kilometers away from the football field and the last part of the route was done on foot.

In his first statements to journalists, the local police chief said that the reunion between parents, children, siblings and friends was “chaotic.” Within minutes, four people were dead and nine were injured and required medical assistance. Five other survivors had to be treated for “anxiety-related symptoms,” said a spokeswoman for the regional health system.

GunViolenceArchive data reveals this was the shooting in the US that killed the most people this year. But it is far from the first: it is already the 45th in a school, only in 2024. On average this year, the United States has had 1.5 shootings per day. The Washington Post, consulting its own archives, adds that this is the deadliest shooting in Georgia since 1999.