Georgia Shooting Suspect Hid Rifle In Poster, Carried It To 2 Classes Before Attack: GBI

It looked as though the 14-year-old suspect was "transporting a school project,” a Georgia Bureau of Investigations agent said of the AR-15-style rifle.

The 14-year-old boy accused of killing four people inside of his Georgia high school last month allegedly smuggled a rifle into the school by hiding it inside of a poster board, a court heard Wednesday among many disturbing new details about the case.

The teen wrapped the AR-15-style rifle in a poster and carried it into Apalachee High School in his backpack on Sept. 4, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations testified during a court hearing for the student’s father, Colin Gray. The father and son were indicted by a grand jury Thursday on dozens of counts related to the attack.

“The rifle was protruding from his bookbag” but “it was not immediately obvious” to agents what it was, GBI Special Agent Lucas Beyer said Wednesday after reviewing security footage from the school and the teen’s school bus. “At a quick glance, it appeared that [he] was possibly transporting a school project.”

Beyer said the teen carried the rifle into two of his morning classes without anyone’s apparent notice and requested a leave of absence during his second-period class. While outside his classroom with the gun, he allegedly opened fire in the school’s halls and a neighboring classroom.

The shooting appeared to have been intricately plotted out, based on a notebook the teen had left on his classroom desk, Beyer said. According to the special agent, the notebook included a layout of classrooms with notes on how many people its author thought he could kill or injure.