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Classmate of alleged Georgia school shooter describes moments before shooting
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Classmate of alleged Georgia school shooter describes moments before shooting

A classmate of Georgia school shooter Colt Gray said she sat next to the 14-year-old before his terrifying carnage, and that at one point she… He left the classroom and tried to reenter with a gun.

Lyela Sayarath, a third-grader at Apalachee High School, told CNN that after leaving Algebra I class on Wednesday morning, Gray later knocked on the closed door asking to be let back in.

Another student who approached the door “saw that he had a gun, so she stepped back,” Sayarath added. Gray “then turned toward the classroom that would be to my right, and he just started shooting, and you heard about ten to fifteen rounds in a row.”

Sayarath said she and others in her class hid behind their desks with the lights off after hearing gunshots.

“When we heard it, most people just dropped to the floor and huddled in one place, piled on top of each other,” she said. “The teacher turned off the lights, but we all piled on top of each other and I was pushing desks out in front of us. I was just telling people, ‘Put desks out in front of you, block them, get low’ — that kind of thing.”

Sayarath described Gray as “quiet” and said she was not surprised he was the shooter.

“He never really talked. He was pretty quiet,” she said. “He wasn’t around much either. He just didn’t come to school or skipped school, but even when he did talk, it was one-word answers and short statements.”

Four people — two 14-year-old students and two teachers — were shot and killed and another nine were wounded in the incident at Apalachee High School, officials confirmed. Gray survived and was immediately arrested. He is expected to be charged with murder and tried as an adult.