What we know about the victims of the Apalachee High School shooting

CNN
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The Apalachee High School and Winder, Georgia, community is in mourning following a mass shooting Wednesday that left two students and two teachers dead and nine others injured – the latest death toll in a country where gun violence appears to continue unabated.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified the dead as Richard Aspinwall, 39; Christina Irimie, 53; and Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Of the injured who were hospitalized, eight were students and one was a teacher.

Stephen Kreyenbuhl, a teacher at Apalachee High School, told CNN’s Sara Sidner how “hard” it was to lose two of his classmates.

“They made a difference,” he said of Aspinwall and Irimie. “They were there for their students every day, and it’s going to be very, very hard and difficult to move on from that.”

Here’s what we know about the victims.

Aspinwall, a math teacher, was described as sweet and friendly by sophomore Ariel Bowling, who took Aspinwall’s geometry class during her freshman year.

“He was always pushing his students to make sure they did well in his classes,” Bowling told CNN, tears in her eyes as she remembered the teacher. “He was just really sweet.”

Michael Gordon, another student, agreed, telling CNN: “He was a good guy… I had him – I’m in tenth grade – so I had him for a whole year and he taught me a lot.”

Aspinwall also served as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator for the Apalachee Wildcats football team.

“As our community, our school and our football program begin the grieving process, we are so grateful for the overwhelming support,” the Apalachee football program said in a message Thursday morning on X. “To our beloved defensive coordinator Ricky Aspinwall, you will be held heavy in our hearts. We love you, Coach A!!!”

According to the school’s website, Irimie was also a math teacher at Apalachee High School.

One of his students, Isaac Sanguma, told CBS Mornings on Thursday that he was having trouble with math. But Irimie was a “really nice” teacher – she liked to tell “silly jokes,” he said. She never made him feel less than.

“She never made me feel stupid,” he said. “You could answer a question on the board wrong, and she won’t make you feel stupid. She will make you feel welcome.”

Fourteen-year-old Christian was described by his older sister as a “very good boy” who was “very sweet and so caring.”

“He was so loved by many,” Lisette Angulo wrote on a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Christian’s funeral, which included a photo of the teenager holding a cake on his 14th birthday. “His loss was so sudden and unexpected. We are truly heartbroken. He truly did not deserve this.”