WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:03.000 We have an active shooter, we have an actor shoot. 2 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:03.759 It's glad to Claire. 3 00:00:03.799 --> 00:00:09.560 It's a mass casualty. 4 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:12.400 Welcome to Active Shooter, a podcast that covers the wys, 5 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:16.160 the hows, and the aftermath of active shooter and mass 6 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:22.879 casualty events. 7 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:25.239 I'm an active shooter in the building and check you call, 8 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:28.120 says our favorite cat shot. 9 00:00:28.359 --> 00:00:29.600 What six nights fais? 10 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:32.679 We've got shots fires four fifteen as. 11 00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:33.920 Reaching ninety one sounded like no, I'm. 12 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:51.840 At a fire, active shooter. It's of an active shooter, active. 13 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:57.880 Shooter, active shooter of mass casualty incidents. Thank you for listening. 14 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.159 You are listening to Active Shooter, a podcast that may 15 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:07.400 contain adult themes, explicit language, and graphic depictions of violence. 16 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:11.120 Portions of this show may be traumatic for those under eighteen. 17 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:14.040 Listener discretion is advised. 18 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.439 It is with a pen dipped in the ink of 19 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:21.319 memory that we turn our gaze upon a day that 20 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:25.840 dawned like any other, yet ended cloaked in the darkness 21 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:30.239 of shadows, A day when the ordinary hum of hallways 22 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:35.280 and the cheerful chatter of youth were brutally silenced, replaced 23 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:39.200 by the piercing shriek of terror and the mournful echo 24 00:01:39.239 --> 00:01:44.359 of loss. Welcome listeners to Active Shooter. I'm JT your host, 25 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:47.159 and this is where we delve into the chilling wyse, 26 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:51.640 the harrowing howls, and the enduring aftermath of active shooter 27 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:55.680 and mass casualty events. Thank you for joining us on 28 00:01:55.719 --> 00:02:00.879 this journey into the shadows. This is the story of 29 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:04.560 Appalachi High School, a place of learning nestled in the 30 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:08.680 quiet embrace of winder Georgia, a town about fifty miles 31 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:12.960 northeast of Atlanta, where, on September fourth, twenty twenty four, 32 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:16.879 the innocence of a new school year was irrevocably shattered. 33 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:22.240 It became, in a single horrifying hour, the sight of 34 00:02:22.280 --> 00:02:26.919 Georgia's deadliest school shooting, a wound etched deep into the 35 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:31.400 heart of a community, a grim testament to the fragility 36 00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:35.800 of peace. If you look this case up, you'll find 37 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:37.879 that the name of the shooter in this episode is 38 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:41.120 wholly inaccurate. For those of you who have been with 39 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:43.599 us before, you know that our team has taken the 40 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:47.159 no notoriety pledge. This means that we will never utter 41 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:50.319 the real name of the individuals responsible for the tragedies 42 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:54.280 we cover. Instead, we'll assign them a pseudonym, and that's 43 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:57.479 the name you'll hear throughout each episode. It helps us 44 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:00.560 keep the narrative clear while staying true to our commitment 45 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:06.439 denying these perpetrators the infamy they often crave. In today's episode, 46 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:12.840 we will refer to the shooter as Tommy. The sun 47 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:17.240 on that fateful Wednesday, rose with a deceptive warmth over 48 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:22.479 Appalachi High, a public school serving around nineteen hundred students. 49 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:27.240 Its brick facade, usually a symbol of stability, stood unwitting 50 00:03:27.319 --> 00:03:31.199 witness to the unfolding tragedy. The morning began not with 51 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:35.680 a bang, but a series of disquieting whispers, like stones 52 00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:39.560 dropped into a still pond, sending out ripples of unease. 53 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:44.439 First there was the anonymous call, a voice from the ether, 54 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:49.439 chillingly precise. Five schools would be targeted, and Appalachi would 55 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:53.800 be the first such threats in a world grown weary 56 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:57.520 of them. Often fade into the background noise of daily life, 57 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:01.719 but this one, unlike so many other, also carried a 58 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:06.879 bitter truth. Then came the frantic call from Tommy's mother, 59 00:04:07.159 --> 00:04:11.599 a mother's intuition, perhaps screaming louder than any siren. For 60 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:15.719 ten long minutes, she spoke with the school administrator, her 61 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:21.120 voice undoubtedly laced with a desperate urgency. She pleaded with 62 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:24.800 them to find her son, a boy barely past childhood, 63 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:29.040 a mere fourteen years old. She warn't a counselor of 64 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:33.439 an extreme emergency, a phrase that should have, in that moment, 65 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:39.199 brought the world to a standstill. This call, a half 66 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.240 hour before the first shot rang out, was a desperate, 67 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:47.560 unheard cry in the wilderness. The administrators, despite her pleas, 68 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:52.040 could not locate him. Later, the boy's own sister would 69 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:55.000 reveal that he had been speaking of a school shooting 70 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:59.600 that very morning, a premonition shared within their home, a 71 00:04:59.639 --> 00:05:04.319 seek that was simply too terrible to keep, but too 72 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:09.720 late to prevent. The mother, in all consuming grief and horror, 73 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:12.720 would decline to elaborate on the exact nature of her warning, 74 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:17.399 but the information she confirmed had been shared with law enforcement. 75 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:22.920 The air inside the school, though outwardly calm, held a 76 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:26.920 subtle tension, a barely perceptible shift in the atmosphere. In 77 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.319 his first period class, Tommy, a boy whose name would 78 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:34.680 soon be synonymous with unspeakable acts posed a question that, 79 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:39.279 in hindsight, echoed with sinister intent. How would the school 80 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:43.519 respond to an active shooter. A teacher, perhaps sensing the 81 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:48.319 unsettling nature of the question or simply following protocol, reported 82 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:52.920 the comment via email to some school staff. It was 83 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:56.720 a small, diligent act, yet one that, in a cruel 84 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:01.959 twist of fate, missed its most crucial reciption, the algebra teacher, 85 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:07.399 whose classroom would become the eye of the storm. The warning, 86 00:06:07.560 --> 00:06:12.600 so numerous, so clear, seemed to fray and snap just 87 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:17.079 before they could be cobbled together. As the clock ticked 88 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.160 on towards the appointed hour, the boy sent two brief, 89 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:23.480 chilling messages. At nine forty two am, a text to 90 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:27.480 his father quote, I'm sorry. It's not your fault. You're 91 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.639 not to blame for any of it. Twenty minutes later, 92 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:35.199 at ten oh two am, an even more desolate message 93 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:40.399 to his mother, quote I'm sorry. These were not pleased 94 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:45.120 for help, but pronouncement of his dark, predetermined path that 95 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:50.639 he had paved for himself in only the blackest of asphalt. 96 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:54.759 Around nine forty five am, three minutes later, the algebra 97 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:58.800 classroom door clicked shut behind him, its automatic lock, sealing 98 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:06.480 the fate of those inside. He had asked his teacher 99 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:09.240 for permission to go to the office to speak with someone. 100 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:12.879 The teacher, perhaps seeing only a troubled youth seeking comfort, 101 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:16.720 allowed him to leave, even take his belongings, an innocent 102 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:19.120 gesture that would soon. 103 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:19.879 Turn to regret. 104 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.920 He made his way to a student bathroom in Jay Hall, 105 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:27.800 a mundane space where the most dramatic events usually involved 106 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:32.959 forgotten textbooks or whispered secrets. There, in the sterile confines 107 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:38.079 of a stall, he transformed. He emerged wearing plastic gloves, 108 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:42.199 a detail that spoke of premeditation, of a detachment from 109 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:45.879 the horror he was about to unleash. His backpack concealed 110 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:49.639 a rolled up white poster board, which wrapped the cold 111 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:53.120 hard reality of a sig hour M four hundred AR 112 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:58.240 fifteen style semi automatic rifle strapped to his lower torso. 113 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:04.079 And then another cruel coincidence, a moment of mistaken identity 114 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:07.759 that would cause precious minutes precious lives. As he exited 115 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:10.759 the bathroom, another student bearing the same last name and 116 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:31.800 strikingly similar first name also left the algebra classroom. The 117 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:35.039 school resource officers, alerted by the staff and Tommy's mother, 118 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:38.799 to the escalating urgency, began their methodical door to door search, 119 00:08:38.919 --> 00:08:43.759 calling out Tommy's last name. They were so close, so 120 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:48.200 agonizingly close, to apprehending him in the very bathroom where 121 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:52.559 he had armed himself, But fate, or perhaps a terrible 122 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:56.799 twist of circumstances intervene. They apprehended the wrong boy, the 123 00:08:56.840 --> 00:09:00.840 one with a similar name. For ten agonizing minutes, the 124 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:06.279 true perpetrator remained at large, unseen, unheard, while the clock 125 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:10.559 ticked closer to the catastrophe. When the error was realized 126 00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:15.279 and the innocent student released, the frantic search resumed, but 127 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:20.240 the window of opportunity had narrowed to a sliver. At 128 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:24.320 ten eighteen am, Tommy's mother, her fear now palpable, texted 129 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:27.120 his father quote, They're going to need you at school. 130 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:32.320 The words hung in the air, heavy with unspoken dread. 131 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:37.120 The shooting began just minutes later. The furst shots, when 132 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:41.679 they came, were like thunderclaps in a quiet library, shattering 133 00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:46.279 the morning's fragile piece. Tommy, having left his algebra class, 134 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:50.399 now sought to re enter, knocking on the door a student, 135 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:53.080 perhaps out of habit or concern, of a classmate went 136 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.120 to open it, but through the glass panel a site 137 00:09:56.159 --> 00:10:00.720 that would forever haunt their memory, the glint of a gun. No, 138 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:03.679 he has a gun, the student cried, a desperate warning. 139 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:07.159 The teacher, perhaps disbelieving, perhaps in shock, still urged the 140 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:10.600 student to open the door. But Tommy did not wait. 141 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:14.080 He entered not the algebra classroom, but one nearby, and 142 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:18.039 unleashed a torrent of violence. Ten to fifteen rounds exploded 143 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:22.399 within the confines of that room, striking multiple innocent souls, 144 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:26.919 among them Christian Angelo, a fourteen year old ninth grader 145 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:31.519 whose young life so full of promise, was extinguished in 146 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:35.720 an instant. He then began to run a terrifying blur 147 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:40.080 down the hall, still firing, still seeking targets, moving towards 148 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:44.240 a set of toilets. The school, once a sanctuary, was 149 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:48.440 now a labyrinth of terror. One student huddled in a 150 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:52.639 technology class, described the chilling sound of shots ringing out. 151 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:56.720 The desperate huddle in a corner, hands over heads, and 152 00:10:56.759 --> 00:11:01.759 their teachers hushed plea to stay quiet. In the midst 153 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:05.440 of the chaos, a new system, scintigics, proved it's worth 154 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:09.399 Many staff members with trembling fingers pushed the panic buttons 155 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:12.879 on their IDs. These new ideas, given to every teacher, 156 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:17.120 were designed for just such a nightmare. Equipped with dynamic 157 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:21.879 digital mapping with real time locating capabilities. 158 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:27.080 Every second matters in an emergency. The Syntegics Crisis Alert 159 00:11:27.159 --> 00:11:31.120 system gives staff members the ability to instantly report emergencies 160 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:34.720 and appropriately respond to any situation that may occur on 161 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:38.480 a school's campus faster than ever before. The most likely 162 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:41.120 use of the stategic safety system will be the three 163 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:45.600 press alert, used for common situations that require immediate medical 164 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:51.000 as well as prevention and intervention in student altercations. The 165 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:55.600 alerted room one, but the integic system is also built 166 00:11:55.720 --> 00:11:58.919 to deal with the worst case scenario, a school intruder 167 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:03.080 or active shooter emergency. A total school lockdown can be 168 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:06.000 triggered by any staff member on the school's campus by 169 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:09.320 repeatedly pressing the crisis alert datche. This type of alert 170 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:13.600 immediately notifies the local safety team, district personnel, and all 171 00:12:13.720 --> 00:12:17.399 local law enforcement of a dangerous threat on the school grounds. 172 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:21.440 The crisis alert system also gives school administrators the ability 173 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:24.960 to broadcast emergency codes to the entire student body on 174 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:28.360 and off campus. In the event of a major emergency 175 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:32.120 at the push of a button. The new Scientergics Alert 176 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:36.159 system uses the latest and emergency response technology to ensure 177 00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:37.720 the safety of its schools. 178 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:48.960 The school's doors, designed to automatically lock once shut, became 179 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:53.000 a crucial line of defense, requiring internal opening, a barrier 180 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:57.120 against the encroaching horror. Another classroom, with quick thinking and 181 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:01.240 desperate strength, barricaded its doors with desks and chairs, a 182 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:06.399 makeshift fortress against the storm. One teacher, hearing the commotion, 183 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:11.159 bravely left his classroom to investigate, only to be shot 184 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:15.600 in the chest. His students, with remarkable courage, pulled him 185 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:18.759 back into the classroom, using their own shirts to stem 186 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:22.080 the bleeding, barricading the door and fighting for his life 187 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:27.919 even as their own trembled. At ten twenty am, the 188 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:32.480 school officially entered lockdown. Law enforcement, their sirens now piercing 189 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:36.960 the morning air, responded swiftly, arriving at ten twenty three am. 190 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:41.080 A lockdown software a digital sentinel, caused the smartboards throughout 191 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:44.840 the school to flash the words hard lockdown in large, red, 192 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:50.159 unblinking letters. In the initial confusion, several students accustomed to 193 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:55.000 drills thought this was just another exercise. But this nightmare, 194 00:13:55.720 --> 00:14:01.799 though devastating, was not prolonged. Within minutes, the school resource officers, 195 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:06.039 with their training and courage, engage the suspect. Tommy, perhaps 196 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:10.120 realizing the futility of his rampage, surrendered. 197 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:12.919 I get on the radio and start saying, hey, we've 198 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:16.039 got an active shooter apple Atchia High School, and God 199 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:19.799 guided King and I down the right hall. There's all 200 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:23.039 the smoking dust that starts billowing over and we'll here, 201 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:26.759 I can't remember it's two or three shots. We could 202 00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:30.879 not see him except for a black silhouette in smoking dust. 203 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:34.159 We start yelling some things that I'm not going to repeat, 204 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:38.919 and I remember hearing this clack sound, and I assume 205 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.639 it was just because he when he threw the gun down. 206 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:44.320 By the time we get up to him, he's face 207 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:49.559 down looking at the footage. You can see when we 208 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:55.000 turn that corner and we start yelling, he stops the 209 00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:59.000 shots that he had. He was aiming to kill a 210 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:01.799 student running down the no their hallway, and you can 211 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:05.559 see this kid running down this hall and falling and 212 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:09.679 looking back and trying to get up, and you see 213 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:15.039 the shooter come up and point the gun to fire 214 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:18.399 and he just stops. On camera. You watch him stop. 215 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:22.039 He turns, puts the gun down and goes down. And 216 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:24.039 that's because we turned and we started yelling down the 217 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:24.840 hall and everything. 218 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:29.399 The immediate aftermath was a scene of controlled chaos and 219 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:34.240 heartbreaking tenderness. Students ushered to the football stadium found teachers 220 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:38.559 their shirts now makeshift bandages tending to gunshot wounds, parents 221 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:43.200 their faces showing pure fear. Streamed towards the school. Traffic 222 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:46.240 backed up for more than a mile. It was a 223 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:50.159 desperate pilgrimage to reunite with their children. The football field, 224 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:54.360 usually a place of triumph and cheers, became a field 225 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:59.840 of tears, embraces, and a profound, overwhelming relief mixed with 226 00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:04.960 the crushing weight of what had been lost in the 227 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:13.919 wake of such violence. Numbers became names, and names became stories, 228 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:20.559 each a universe of love, laughter, and unfulfilled dreams. Four souls, 229 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:24.320 vibrant and unique, were stolen from their loved ones on 230 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:34.360 that day. Mason Alexander Shermerhorn, a mere fourteen years old, 231 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:37.440 was a ninth grade student from winder Georgia, born on 232 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:42.080 May twenty seventh, twenty ten. Mason, like so many boys 233 00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:46.360 his age found joy in the digital realms of video games, 234 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:51.720 his heart particularly captured by the intricate worlds of Kingdom Hearts. 235 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:55.720 He harbored a special affection for Disney World, a place 236 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:59.720 of magic and wonder, and found quiet satisfaction in the 237 00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:04.240 ticulous construction of Lego. But above all, his family, a 238 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.319 constellation of love and support, meant the world to him. 239 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:12.519 His absence left a void, a silence where once there 240 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:15.720 was the joyful click of Lego bricks and the soft 241 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:22.359 glow of a gaming screen. Christian Angelo, also fourteen, was 242 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:25.279 a fellow ninth grader at Appalachi High and shared the 243 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:29.440 same tender age as Mason and the same cruel fate. 244 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:33.200 His parents, immigrants from Mexico, had built a life for 245 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:36.720 their family in this new land, filled with the hope 246 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:41.000 of a brighter future. Christian was, by all accounts, a 247 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:45.359 very good kid, his nature sweet and carrying a gentle soul, 248 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:50.480 navigating the complexities of adolescence. In the aftermath, his oldest sister, 249 00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:54.319 with a strength born of grief, set up a GoFundMe, 250 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:58.720 a digital plea for help that resonated across the nation, 251 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:02.519 raising over two two hundred and seventeen thousand dollars for 252 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:08.680 funeral expenses. A testament to the collective sorrow and generosity 253 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:29.039 of strangers. Richard Ricky Aspinwall the Second, thirty nine years old, 254 00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:33.319 was born on June fifteenth, nineteen eighty five, in Riverdale, Georgia. 255 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.240 Ricky was more than just a teacher. He was a 256 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:41.359 force of nature, a beloved coach whose passion for football 257 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:44.920 had been a lifelong companion, from his own playing days 258 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.559 to his fervent support for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Longhorns. 259 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:52.720 He graduated from Rome High School in two thousand and 260 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:56.799 three and pursued his education at Valdosta State University, where 261 00:18:56.839 --> 00:19:01.119 he majored in accounting, though his true calling in the classroom, 262 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:04.400 it was at Valdosta State in two thousand and eight 263 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:07.720 that he met Shana, the love of his life, his 264 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:12.440 future wife, whom he married in twenty sixteen. Ricky was 265 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:16.839 renowned for his infectious dance moves, his booming singing voice, 266 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.519 his impressive eating habits, and most profoundly, his unparalleled ability 267 00:19:21.799 --> 00:19:25.119 to make everyone feel like they had a true friend 268 00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:28.880 in him. He earned both his master's and specialist degrees 269 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:33.319 in education, pouring his heart into creating a fun classroom 270 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:37.640 for his students, fostering a positive sense of community that 271 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:42.559 extended far beyond academics. His family was his pride and joy. 272 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:45.920 A devoted husband and a loving girl. Dad to his 273 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:49.759 two little girls. He found simple pleasures in working on 274 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:54.079 home projects, cheering on the braves at games, golfing, and 275 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:59.440 cherishing time with his friends. His death left a gaping hole, 276 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:04.039 not just in his family, but in the vibrant tapestry 277 00:20:04.359 --> 00:20:12.200 of the school community he so deeply enriched. Christina Ermi 278 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:16.319 fifty three years old, a beloved teacher, wife, daughter, and 279 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:19.920 friend whose life was a testament to dedication and service. 280 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:23.680 She had devoted her entire life to teaching, a calling 281 00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:28.240 she pursued with unwavering commitment. Her mother, living in Romania, 282 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:32.480 remained a cherished connection to her roots. Christina and her 283 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:35.880 husband had emigrated to the US more than two decades ago, 284 00:20:35.920 --> 00:20:39.920 building a new life while holding on to their heritage. 285 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:45.839 She volunteered countless hours, not only teaching children traditional Romanian dances, 286 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.279 but also patiently tutoring them in math and nurturing young 287 00:20:49.400 --> 00:20:53.759 minds with both cultural richness and academic rigor. She was 288 00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:57.880 a familiar comforting presence in the church kitchen, joining other 289 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:01.400 women to prepare traditional meals, her hands busy with the 290 00:21:01.400 --> 00:21:06.599 work of community and sustenance. Christina Ermy was a quiet 291 00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:10.240 pillar of strength and kindness. In her absence left a 292 00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:17.119 profound silence in the lives she touched. To understand the 293 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:21.319 horror of that day, one must, however, reluctantly delve into 294 00:21:21.319 --> 00:21:24.319 the shadowed path of Tommy, a boy whose life, even 295 00:21:24.359 --> 00:21:28.640 at fourteen, was already a tangled knot of neglect, violence, 296 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:32.960 and missed opportunities. For three years preceding the shooting, his 297 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:36.720 family had been a revolving door for Georgia child welfare workers, 298 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:40.680 a grim procession of interventions that never quite managed to 299 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:47.160 untangle the deep seated departments and two local police agencies, 300 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:50.400 each interaction of flashing red light on a road leading 301 00:21:50.440 --> 00:21:55.599 inexorably towards disaster. In August twenty twenty one, a chilling 302 00:21:55.640 --> 00:22:00.000 premonition surfaced. Tommy, then just eleven, allegedly searched the end 303 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.920 Internet for ways to murder his father using a school device. 304 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:07.559 The search was flagged a digital alarm bell ringing in 305 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:11.400 the quiet halls of the school. Two school resource officers 306 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:15.160 following protocol, went to Tommy's home, speaking with him and 307 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:19.160 his father. It was a moment, perhaps when the trajectory 308 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:20.400 could have been altered. 309 00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:27.160 Whom their type is gone by. So did your dad 310 00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:31.480 cand of explain everything to you? Said something the bugs, 311 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:34.880 we'll shoot down to school, maybe they mishurt somebody else. 312 00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:38.240 He gets flustered and under pressure. He doesn't really think straight. 313 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:41.119 We talk about it quite a bit, and all the 314 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:42.960 school shootings, things that happened. 315 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:44.480 Let's see, he's getting picked on at school. 316 00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:46.240 You never really know, and I don't want anything to 317 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:47.799 happen to him, the mad. 318 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:53.000 Schools, And I had fruit ins like I necessarily have 319 00:22:53.079 --> 00:22:56.119 a reason that I would say that I'm gonna be 320 00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:59.200 mad as hell if he did, And then all the 321 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:02.480 guns will go and they won't be accessible. Now if 322 00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:05.839 he knows the seriousness of weapons and what they can 323 00:23:05.880 --> 00:23:07.599 do and how to use. 324 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:08.319 Them and not use it. 325 00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:09.759 I got to take it into word. And I hope 326 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:10.559 you be in honest with me. 327 00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:12.480 Yes, I'm not saying you're life. 328 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:15.240 But it's it's a serious thing. 329 00:23:16.920 --> 00:23:19.640 A family member later revealed a pattern of violence, stating 330 00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:23.079 that Tommy's father had repeatedly beaten the boy, a grim 331 00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:28.519 backdrop to the child's disturbing online searches. The cycle of 332 00:23:28.599 --> 00:23:33.279 violence continued. In September twenty twenty one, Tommy's maternal grandmother, 333 00:23:33.559 --> 00:23:37.519 a woman perhaps desperate to protect her grandchild, reported her 334 00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:41.240 own daughter, his mother, to the Georgia Division of Family 335 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:45.519 and Children's Services, the allegation his mother had struck the 336 00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:48.680 boy about six times. CPS recommended that he move in 337 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:51.759 with his paternal grandmother, and his mother was mandated to 338 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:55.720 undergo regular drug testing, a sign of deeper issues festering 339 00:23:55.759 --> 00:24:00.640 beneath the surface, the instability persisted. On October thirty, twenty 340 00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:04.279 twenty two, a neighbor witnessed a harrowing scene around eleven pm. 341 00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:07.200 Tommy and his sister were hit by their mother and 342 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:10.440 forced out of the house. The neighbor, a silent witness 343 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:17.119 to the escalating chaos, called CPS. Then came the Discord Threats, 344 00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:21.759 a digital echo chamber of dark fantasies. In May twenty 345 00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:25.200 twenty three, a complaint surfaced alleging Tommy had made school 346 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:29.039 shooting threats on the online platform. FBI agents from the 347 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:32.319 Atlanta Field Office and deputies from the Jackson County Sheriff's 348 00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:36.640 office descended upon Tommy's home, prompted by anonymous tips to 349 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:42.680 the FBI's National Threat Operations Center. The boy, in a 350 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:47.039 series of evasive answers, denied making threats, denied knowing discord, 351 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:50.440 and then admitted to an account that was deleted, then 352 00:24:50.519 --> 00:24:55.920 claimed it was hacked. His father, seemingly oblivious or in denial, 353 00:24:56.400 --> 00:24:59.400 told investigators he owned hunting rifles, but insisted his son 354 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:05.119 didn't have unsupervised access. Crucially, photos from the Discord report 355 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:09.279 depicting two weapons were never shown to the father for authentication. 356 00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:12.960 After the shooting, the FBI would issue a statement, a 357 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:17.200 cold official post mortem quote at the time, there were 358 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:20.440 no probable cause for an arrest or to take any 359 00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:24.519 additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal levels. 360 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:30.119 But the Discord comments themselves painted a portrait of a 361 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:34.279 mind steeped in violence and hatred. The user's name written 362 00:25:34.279 --> 00:25:37.759 in Russian translated ominously to the last name of the 363 00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:42.519 Sandy Hook shooter, a detail the father dismissed, claiming his 364 00:25:42.599 --> 00:25:46.920 son didn't speak or understand Russian. The messages were dark 365 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:49.720 quote I'm committing a mass shooting and I'm waiting a 366 00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:53.319 good two to three years, plans to target an elementary school, 367 00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:58.480 and a deluge of anti lgbtqia plus and anti Semitic words. 368 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:01.039 Quote let me give you an example of why I'm 369 00:26:01.039 --> 00:26:03.160 doing this. I need to put an end to that. 370 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:06.599 I'm on the edge of an LGBTQ massacre. 371 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:11.319 One message declared. He even posted photos of guns. His father, 372 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:15.319 confronted with these disturbing revelations, told investigators his son was 373 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:18.599 going through a lot and found it very difficult for 374 00:26:18.680 --> 00:26:20.480 him to go to school and not get picked on. 375 00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:25.759 He vehemently denied his son had that unsupervised access to firearms, 376 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:32.319 dismissing the investigation as quote bullshit. Yet one investigator, with 377 00:26:32.440 --> 00:26:35.559 a prescient warning, urged the father to keep his firearms 378 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:37.839 locked away and to keep his son out of school 379 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:41.559 until the matter was resolved, which was a warning unheeded. 380 00:26:42.359 --> 00:26:45.640 The instability of his home life continued its churning. In 381 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:48.160 the fall of twenty twenty three, Tommy moved back in 382 00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:51.279 with his mother in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Around this time, she 383 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:55.640 began using methamphetamine, a fact she later admitted. Her drug 384 00:26:55.720 --> 00:26:58.599 use led to another intervention after she failed a random 385 00:26:58.680 --> 00:27:01.599 drug test Tommy and his siblings were sent back to 386 00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:22.160 their father in Bethlehem, Georgia. The family drama escalated again 387 00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:26.519 to a terrifying crescendo. On November three, twenty twenty three, 388 00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:30.599 Tommy's mother, in a moment of terrifying delusion, taped her 389 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:35.480 own mother, Tommy's grandmother, to a chair. She then declared 390 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:37.920 her intention to drive to Bethlehem to kill Tommy and 391 00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:40.880 his father. She was found and arrested at a local 392 00:27:40.920 --> 00:27:44.359 walmart with notes about her vehicle and its grim testament 393 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:49.240 to her suicidal ideations. In a chilling detail, she expressed 394 00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:52.240 a desire to see two of her three children, but 395 00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:57.839 explicitly excluded Tommy. She was later sentenced to time served 396 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:02.960 for a family violence while a false imprisonment charge remained pending. 397 00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:07.680 Serving her time in a Barrow County jail. The summer 398 00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:11.079 before the shooting offered yet more red flags. In August 399 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:14.720 twenty twenty four, Tommy expressed a disturbing fascination with the 400 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:18.359 Parkland shooter to his grandmother. In this same month, his 401 00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:22.599