US: Georgia school shooting suspect and father face court
September 6, 2024
The 14-year-old accused of the first mass school shooting of the new school year in the US, at the Apalachee High School in the town of Winder on Wednesday, made his first court appearance early on Friday morning.
What happened during the session?
His lawyers declined to seek bail, so he will stay in custody pending trial. The defendant did not issue a plea.
The student, shackled at the hands and ankles, was informed of his rights and the charges and potential penalties he faced. He was also called back into the chamber by the judge after the brief session concluded.
This was because Judge Currie Mingledorff had told the teenager, mistakenly, that he could face the death penalty given the four counts of felony murder he is exposed to. The US only carries out the death penalty against adults aged 18 or over. He could still face life imprisonment.
The judge set another hearing for December 4.
About 50 onlookers and media were in the courtroom for the hearings at the Barrow County courthouse in Winder, not far east of Atlanta in the southeastern state of Georgia.
Father also appears in court, charged with manslaughter and second-degree murder
Two students and two teachers were killed in Wednesday's shooting and another nine people were wounded, seven of whom were shot. The suspect used what was described as a "black semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle."
He was arrested by two sheriff's deputies assigned to the school moments after the shooting.
The boy's 54-year-old father is also facing counts of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder, with the charges "directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon," as Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey put it.
He will also remain in detention without bail.
This development is reminiscent of a case this April in Michigan, when the parents of a school shooter became the first to be convicted in the US in connection with such a crime. They were given at least 10 years in prison for what magistrates deemed their failure to secure a firearm at home and acting indifferently to their son's deteriorating mental health prior to the crime.
Investigators have yet to comment on what may have motivated the shooting.
Winder is a town of aboout 18,000 people not far from Georgia's state capital of Atlanta.
msh/jcg (AP, Reuters)
Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspects, victims and those who are associated with a criminal case, and urges the media to refrain from publishing their identities in most cases.