A classmate who sat next to 14-year-old Colt Gray, the suspect accused of a recent school shooting in Georgia, recently spoke to reporters about what Gray was like in school, his bizarre behavior shortly before opening fire on staff and students, as well as her brush with death in an event that left four dead and several injured.
Lyela Sayarath had just started her junior year at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, but the beginning of the school year was anything but normal for her. Sayarath was a classmate of Gray and sat next to him in algebra class on the morning of the massacre on Sept. 4, unaware of what was about to unfold.
Sayarath said Gray “never really talked” at school aside from “one-word answers,” and was often absent, usually because he was skipping class. She said she she found out that Gray was the shooter, she “wasn’t surprised” and that it was “usually the quiet kid” who ended up becoming a school shooter.
On the morning of the attack, Sayarath said that Gray asked to be excused from class around 9:45 AM, about thirty minutes before alerts went off for an active shooter. When he left the classroom, she said she figured he was skipping class again because he didn’t take the teacher’s bathroom pass, not expecting at all what followed.
An announcement over the loudspeaker instructed teachers and staff to check their emails and shortly after that, Gray re-appeared at the door. One student went to greet him at the door and then jumped back when spotting the gun. Sayarath said Gray must have realized they weren’t letting him in and started firing into the adjacent classroom instead.
Sayarath described the chaotic scene as people threw themselves to the ground and “piled on top of each other.” She said one of her friends in the other classroom saw someone get shot in front of him and was “shaken up” by it.
Two students died in the shooting: Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Two teachers also died: 53-year-old Chrtina Irimie and 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall. Nine others were injured.