On Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2024, a 14-year-old gunman is accused of killing four and injuring nine people at Apalachee High School in an act of violence that rocked the Winder and Bethlehem communities.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t think it couldn’t happen here, I was just shocked that it did,” Winder Mayor Jimmy Terrell said. “The whole situation was like a massive kick in the gut.”
Terrell has a background in law enforcement and is a former police chief of the Winder Police Department. He explained that working in law enforcement for many years taught him to differentiate between sirens. When he heard multiple ambulance sirens go off outside of his office window, he knew something was very wrong.
“I knew those were all ambulance sirens. I knew something was out of the ordinary. I went downstairs and asked [the police] dispatch what was going on,” Terrell recalled. “And that’s when I found out there was an active shooter at the high school.”
Terrell praised the response time of the school resource officers, saying that the shooter was in police custody within 4 minutes of the first sign of a threat. The city held SRO training at Apalachee High School over the summer and the officers were trained for active shooter protocol in case of such an event. Also new this year is the button on faculty name tags, that if pressed seven times alerts local authorities of danger. Terrell credited the technology with “saving many lives.”
Following the tragedy, the city of Winder held two candlelight vigils, one on Wednesday night and one on Friday night at Jug Tavern Park downtown. Over 2300 people showed up and Apalachee High School hosted more vigils of their own to honor the fallen victims. At the Friday night service, State Senator Raphael Warnock and U.S. Representative Mike Collins spoke. Due to a special request from Terrell and the city of Winder, no politics were ever discussed during the services.
“We will cry together. We will hurt together. And we will overcome together.”
– Winder Mayor Jimmy Terrell at candlelight ceremony
“The most common response that we received was that [the candlelight service] was exactly what the community needed,” stated Terrell.
Terrell also noted the support that the city received from across the nation. Among those were schools such as Sandy Hook Elementary School in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, as well as Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. President Joe Biden and Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump issued statements expressing their condolences. Support from across the state of Georgia and beyond flooded through the city of Winder, including Governor Brian Kemp and even the mayor of Nashville, Tennessee.
“We need to count our blessings to get back to a state of normalcy,” Terrell said. “I encourage people to pray and feel the comfort that prayer brings.”
An ongoing FBI/GBI investigation continues at the school, including the hallways and classrooms where the shooting occurred, which remain closed. After the incident, dozens of threats of follow-up shootings were made to nearby schools. The Winder Police Department, Barrow Country Sheriff’s Office, and other departments around the country have responded to each and every threat according to Terrell. He said he wants schools in the area to begin doing active shooter drills with students and officers present to add more realism, so that schools are better prepared.
Addressing the possibility of adding metal detectors, Terrell shared his doubts. He claimed that it would be much too expensive for every school to receive metal detectors and it would also be a near-impossible challenge to get a couple thousand people in the building in a timely manner with such few entrances and a strict bus schedule.
For Apalachee High School in particular, fundraisers have been created where proceeds go directly to the victims and their families. Terrell warned the community to be wary of imposter fundraisers looking to take advantage of the situation, and said that the Winder Police Department is on alert of potential scammers on platforms such as GoFundMe.
“The pain will never go away. But I think it will get better, and I think it will get better more quickly than other tragedies because of the support our city has received.” – Mayor Jimmy Terrell
“It’s going to take counseling for students, their families, the staff and the entire community,” Mayor Terrell said. “Whether you were in Atlanta, Athens, Statham, Auburn, Gainesville, Monroe – you all were affected. Police and fire departments from everywhere came to help, and that was a blessing.”
“We promise to keep the victims’ names alive and honor them as best as we possibly can,” Terrell said. “And we will definitely build a monument, I can promise you that.”
To donate to the GoFundMe, click here.
