A 14-year-old boy has been chargedwithshootingfour people dead at a US high school, authorities said Thursday, adding that their investigation into the country’s latest outburst of gun violence is ongoing.

The teen faces four felony murder counts after allegedly killing two fellow pupils, also aged 14, as well as two teachers at Apalachee High School in the southern state of Georgia on Wednesday.

Citing unnamed sources, CNN reported that the gun used in the shooting — which it described as an AR 15-style assault rifle — had been purchased for the teenager by his father as a holiday gift.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had said the suspect would be charged as an adult. It said that he would appear in court on Friday, and that additional charges are expected.

“The investigation into the shooting at Apalachee HS is still active & ongoing,” the agency said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“This is day 2 of a very complex investigation & the integrity of the case is paramount,” it continued, adding that all four victims would be autopsied on Thursday.

School shootings are a shockingly regular occurrence in the United States, where guns outnumber people and regulations on purchasing even powerful military-style rifles are lax.

Parental responsibility in mass shootings, particularly by minors, has come increasingly under the spotlight in recent months.

“How could you have an assault rifle, a weapon in a house, not locked up and knowing your kid knows where it is?” lamented President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Wisconsin on Thursday.

“You’ve got to hold parents accountable if they let their child have access to these guns.”

In April, the parents of a teenager who killed four people in a school shooting in Michigan were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, in an unprecedented and closely watched case.

Jennifer Crumbley, 46, and her husband James, 47, were the first parents of a school shooter convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the United States for the actions of their child.

Polls show a majority of voters favor stricter controls on the use and purchase of firearms, but a powerful gun ownership lobby is opposed to additional restrictions and lawmakers have repeatedly failed to act.

Winder:

The perpetrator of a shooting at a US high school on Wednesday was a 14-year-old student and two of the four people killed were fellow pupils, authorities said.

“Of those that are deceased, two were students and two were teachers here at the school,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “The shooter is in custody… He is a fourteen year old student here at the high school.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A law enforcement officer works near the scene of a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, U.S. September 4, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Four people were killed and nine wounded in a school shooting in the U.S. State of Georgia on Wednesday (September 4, 2024), the State bureau of investigation said.

“Four dead. An additional nine were taken to various hospitals with injuries. The suspect is in custody and alive. Reports that the suspect has been ‘neutralized’ are inaccurate,” the bureau said in a social media post.