ATLANTA — The Georgia and American flags flew at half-staff outside Apalachee High School on Thursday morning, a day after two students and two teachers were gunned down.
Supporters left flowers next to the high school’s welcome sign. And overnight, community members and supporters rushed to donate to the victims’ families.
Nine others were injured in the shooting at the Barrow County high school, about 45 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. The crime was allegedly carried out by a 14-year-old student who had previously been investigated by local and federal law enforcement for allegedly threatening a shooting at an unspecified time and location.
Late Wednesday, the GBI identified the student victims as Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. The teachers killed were assistant football coach Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall and Christina Irimie, a math teacher according to the school’s website.
The alleged shooter, Colt Gray, an Apalachee student, was charged with murder and is being held at a regional youth detention center. He is expected to be charged as an adult.
GoFundMe fundraisers were created for two of the victims, student Christian Angulo and assistant football coach Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, pulling in nearly $88,000 as of 6:30 a.m. Thursday. A third fund created by the families of previous school shooting victims has raised an additional $2,500.
Fundraisers for the other victims had not been created as of early Thursday morning.
Christian was remembered by his family as “very sweet and so caring.”
“He was so loved by many,” his oldest sister, Lisette Angulo, wrote on GoFundMe. “His loss was so sudden and unexpected. We are truly heartbroken. He really didn’t deserve this.”
All donations go toward helping the family with funeral expenses, Lisette Angulo wrote.
“We appreciate anything you can give. We also would appreciate any prayers at this time. Thank you,” she wrote.
Aspinwall, 39, was hired as Apalachee’s defensive coordinator prior to the 2023 season and taught math, according to the school’s directory. A Rome native, Aspinwall previously coached at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville and at Dunwoody High School.
The GoFundMe created for him will help his wife, Shayna, and “make sure (their) two precious babies are taken care of.”
“We are all in shock over the news that Ricky Aspinwall lost his life protecting his students,” wrote the campaign organizer.
The third fundraiser has been set up by the “families of over two decades of previous mass shootings from across this country.”
“Our hearts are breaking for the victims and survivors of the mass shooting at the Apalachee High School,” the group, Victims First, said in the campaign.
The group previously collected donations for victims of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting, as well as helped coordinate victim funds for the shootings at Oxford High School in Michigan and The Covenant School in Tennessee.
