BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — As the investigation continues into the deadly Apalachee High School shooting, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith sat down with 11Alive for the first time since the horrific tragedy.
He revealed that the tragedy that unfolded inside Apalachee High School on the morning of Sept. 4 took less than a minute from the first shot to the moments resource officers responded.
“It was around 52 seconds," Sheriff Smith said.
He explained that Colt Gray had just started at Apalachee High School the week of the shooting.
On that Wednesday morning, Sheriff Smith said Colt got onto a bus outside his home along Harrison Mill Road in Bethlehem, which is about six miles from the high school.
Sheriff Smith said Colt had a plan that morning.
“I think it was cold and calculated,” he explained.
Sheriff Smith said Colt got on the bus with a backpack.
A neighbor across the street from where Colt lived with his father and two younger siblings told 11Alive she saw who she believed to be Colt standing at the bus stop that morning wearing all black, including a hoodie and a black backpack.
Sheriff Smith said Colt had the gun along with magazines and ammunition in his backpack.
As for how he was able to hide the AR-style weapon, Sheriff Smith explained, “We know he concealed it with some sort of something wrapped around it as if it was a school project -- if you will.”
Once the bus reached Apalachee High School, Sheriff Smith said Colt got off and blended in with the roughly 2,000 students.
“He was registered there. It was not like he wasn’t supposed to be there,” he explained.
Sheriff Smith said the high school has cameras throughout the halls, which also pick up audio.
He said while they are still going through all the videos to get a solid timeline, he can confirm Colt was never seen without his backpack leading up to the shooting.
It was sometime during the nine o’clock hour when Sheriff Smith said Colt asked to be excused from class.
“He asked to leave the classroom and go up front to see a counselor,” Sheriff Smith said.
Sheriff Smith said in the video, they can track Colt, who left the classroom and entered a bathroom where he stayed for an "extended amount of time," according to the sheriff.
He said Colt took his backpack with him, and Sheriff Smith claimed this was not unusual because it was close to a class change at the bell.
Sheriff Smith said when they see Colt again emerging from the bathroom, he’s armed with a rifle.
“Exits the bathroom and begins shooting,” Sheriff Smith said, adding, “He starts looking for soft targets.”
Sheriff Smith said a student in the hall was almost immediately shot once Colt left the bathroom.
He said the only students in the hall were those who were going somewhere outside of the class -- like the bathroom.
Sheriff Smith said as those shots were being fired, two teachers heard it and left their rooms to investigate the sounds.
“They were going to try, and we feel like (they were going to) fight him (to) try and get him to stop, but it didn’t work out that way,” he explained.
Sheriff Smith confirmed one of those victims was Coach A, who died from his injuries. The second coach survived but has not been identified.
He said the final victim of this tragedy, a student, was coming out of the bathroom and was also ambushed by the shooter.
Sheriff Smith said in less than a minute, the school’s resource officers engaged with Colt.
"They turned the corner and engaged him about three-quarters of a football field away, about 76 yards, they said. They engaged him, gave him verbal commands, he put the gun down, he laid down,” he said.
In less than a minute, four people killed, seven others shot and two more injured.
Sheriff Smith said it’s been questioned why his deputies didn’t shoot the suspect.
“When he committed to putting the gun down, laying out in the prone position as he was told to do so, that threat ends, we put him in handcuffs, and the threat is over at that point," he explained.
Sheriff Smith went on to explain had Colt not complied and was a threat to those deputies, they were prepared to use deadly force.
“If they pull that trigger, and they miss him, they have to worry about where their rounds go unlike him, so they have that to think about -- and keep in mind they were fighting him with a handgun, and he has a semi-automatic rifle," Sheriff Smith explained.
Sheriff Smith said within 10 minutes of officers arriving at the shooting call and entering the high school, they had the injured pulled out and being medically evaluated.
He said they’ve been told that quick response likely saved at least four of the victim's lives who survived the shooting.
“It wasn’t safe when they went in, but they went in and got the victims out as quickly as possible,” Sheriff Smith said.
Sheriff Smith was quick to remind everyone that in those first few minutes, it was unclear if there were any additional shooters inside the school besides the one shooter who was on the floor in cuffs.
More on the interview with Sheriff Jud Smith
There have been questions about a phone call made by Colt’s mother on the morning of the shooting after allegedly getting alarming texts from her son. She’s claimed she told a school counselor to check on her son. That has led to questions on how the school and school resource officers responded.
Sheriff Smith talked about those concerns and shared more insight on why Colt’s dad is being charged alongside his son in connection to the deadly shooting.
He also spoke on the 2023 investigation into an FBI tip that led to Colt and his father, Colin, regarding accusations of making a school threat.
That interview and online story is coming up on Friday on 11Alive News at 11 p.m.