FBI says local law enforcement investigated 2023 Georgia shooter, found no probable cause

The FBI says the bureau has not directly investigated the suspect behind the tragic mass shooting at a Georgia high school this week.

The student shooter accused of opening fire at Apalachee High School on Wednesday was reported anonymously to the FBI in 2023 for online threats and “possibly threatened to shoot up a college” in a group chat on the messaging app Discord.

Fox News Digital spoke with FBI officials in Atlanta, who said the FBI did not interview the suspect or visit his home. Instead, the FBI provided the information from the anonymous tip to the Jackson County Sheriff.

Local law enforcement officers from the sheriff's department conducted a further investigation and interviewed the suspect's father, which was documented in a report that failed to substantiate the threats.

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During the investigation, the suspect “expressed concern that someone would accuse him of threatening to shoot up a school, saying he would never say such a thing, even in jest,” according to a report from the interviews.

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The agent investigating the anonymous tip discovered that the information sent to the FBI was communicated via different IP addresses around the world: Palmdale, California; Los Angeles, California; and Cockburn, Australia. He also examined the email address and phone number linked to the case, as well as the user profile linked to the threats.

The profile name, written in Russian, referred to the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

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“[The Apalachee suspect] He said he stopped using Discord because too many people kept hacking his account and he was afraid someone would use his information for malicious purposes,” the report said.

“At this time, due to the inconsistent nature of the information received by the FBI, the allegation that [the Apalachee shooting suspect or his father] “The identity of the user behind the Discord account that made the threat cannot be proven,” the investigator wrote in 2023. “This case will be exceptionally closed.”

An FBI source told Fox News Digital that if there is no immediate threat to life, it is customary to notify local law enforcement, provide information and ask them to investigate the information.

“There are limits to what you can do when you get these warnings,” former FBI agent Rob D'Amico told “FOX & Friends First” Thursday.

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“Local police went to interview the father and son. He denied making these threats online,” D’Amico continued. “The father said the son did not have unrestricted access to the weapons. They did what they could and then left because there was no good reason to take any further action.”

A spokesperson for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told Fox News Digital that the alleged shooter's parents “have been cooperative so far.”

The comment came in response to a question about whether authorities were investigating the shooter's parents following Wednesday's attack, which left four people dead and nine injured.

The suspect was booked into the Gainesville Area Youth Detention Center, according to WSB Television. The Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center is located about an hour north of Apalachee High School in Winder.

Matthew Fagiana, retired police sergeant and law enforcement consultant, told Fox News Digital that the officials who intervened focus on the background and motive of the 14-year-old suspect from the start of the investigation.

“Things like the timeline of the incident. A chronological history of the suspect leading up to the shooting, a thorough review of the suspect’s background for things like interactions with victims, any indications of violent behavior, statements or social media posts that could help them develop a motive, and recent internet history,” he said.

“And that, of course, only scratches the surface of the investigation,” he added.

Fagiana noted that responding agencies, including the FBI's Atlanta field office and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, are combing through the scene at Apalachee High School to build a “precise picture” of the suspect's path through the school.

Greg Norman, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Stepheny Price of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

Source of the original article: FBI says local law enforcement investigated 2023 Georgia shooter, found no probable cause