WINDER, Ga. — New interviews with parents, students and family members are prompting questions about the timeline of the Apalachee High School shooting and whether it could've been prevented.
Text messages shared with The Washington Post suggest Marcee Gray called a counselor at Apalachee High at 9:50 a.m. on Wednesday morning, warning of an "extreme emergency" involving her son, 14-year-old Colt Gray.
Neither the Barrow County School District nor the Barrow County Sheriff's Office would confirm whether that call took place or what happened in the minutes that followed.
Rabecca Sayarath shared her 16-year-old daughter's experience with 11Alive to help fill in some of the gaps.
"Around 10 a.m., the assistant principal came to the room looking for the shooter, but had the wrong name and took another child's backpack and left," she said. "A short time later, that child comes back in with his backpack, and (my daughter) asked him what happened."
Her daughter, Lyela, shares a math class with the suspect — Colt Gray — and a student with a very similar name. Rabecca said administrators weren't able to locate the right student in time.
"A girl (got) up to go open the door and (saw) him pulling a gun out of his bag and just start(ed) to back up and after that he turn(ed) and just start(ed) shooting," her daughter told her. "Why was the school not put on lockdown when they got the call (that morning)?"
She believes that lockdown would've saved lives.
"Had the school been put on lockdown, all of the doors would've been closed, and hopefully nobody would've been in the hallway, and everybody might've survived that day," she told 11Alive. "You had all that information, you got that call. Why was nothing done?"
11Alive reached out to the school district to see whether they received a call that morning. They declined to comment.
"Because this is an active investigation, we will not be commenting on specific details. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is handling that information. Please visit our website for updates we are sharing with families and our community. Thank you for your understanding," a spokesperson said.
The sheriff's office did not respond to 11Alive's request for comment.