Boy, 14, kills 4 in U.S. school shooting

WINDER, United States (AFP) — A 14-year-old boy killed four people, including two students, and wounded nine more when he opened fire at a high school in the US state of Georgia on Wednesday, law enforcement said.

The suspected shooter — also a student at the school — had been brought to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s attention more than a year ago for threats to commit a school shooting, the agency said.

He was taken into custody after Wednesday’s shooting and will be tried as an adult on murder charges, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Two teachers were also among the dead.

“Our school resource officer engaged him,” county sheriff Jud Smith told reporters, referring to law enforcement officers employed to work at US schools.

“The shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up that it would end with an OIS — an officer-involved shooting. He gave up, got on the ground, and the deputy took him into custody.”

Smith said police did not yet know if the shooter singled out specific people as targets, adding later that the nine wounded were expected to recover.