Lyela Sayarath Recounts: Chilling Moments Before the Apalachee High School Mass Shooting: Lyela Sayarath Recounts Her Experience Sitting Beside Suspected Gunman Colt Gray, Moments Before He Opened Fire in a Tragic School Shooting That Left Four Dead

Lyela Sayarath Recounts Chilling Moments Before Apalachee High School Mass Shooting In the aftermath of the devastating mass shooting at Apalachee High School, one student, Lyela Sayarath, has come forward to recount the chilling moments she experienced just before the gunfire erupted.

Lyela, a 16-year-old junior, was sitting beside the suspected gunman, 14-year-old Colt Gray, only moments before he opened fire, tragically killing four people and injuring nine others on September 3, 2024. 

Her account offers a haunting glimpse into the moments leading up to the attack that has left the Winder, Georgia, community in mourning.

Lyela recalls the morning as a typical day, with students preparing for class. She sat next to Colt, someone she had shared classes with but didn’t know well personally. According to Lyela, Colt seemed unusually quiet and distant that day, his eyes fixed ahead as if lost in thought. "

He wasn’t his usual self, and he kept fidgeting with his backpack," she recounted. "There was a weird tension in the air, but none of us could have ever imagined what was about to happen."

Without warning, Colt suddenly stood up, and in a flash, pulled out a firearm from his backpack. Lyela vividly recalls the terror that unfolded next. "He didn’t say anything, just started shooting. 

The noise was deafening, and everyone started screaming and running." She described the chaos and panic that ensued as students and teachers scrambled to take cover, some attempting to shield others from the gunfire.

Lyela managed to escape unscathed, but the traumatic experience has left her deeply shaken. She has struggled to process how someone she had just been sitting beside could commit such a horrific act. "It’s hard to understand how everything changed in a split second," she said. "I still can’t believe it. We’ve all been changed forever."

The tragic shooting claimed the lives of two students, including Mason Schermerhorn, and two teachers, Jah’Quih Pledger and Richard Aspinwall. As the community grieves and attempts to heal, Lyela’s account 

of the moments leading up to the shooting provides a heart-wrenching reminder of the unpredictable and senseless nature of the violence that has forever altered Apalachee High School.