Georgia high school shooting victims include math teachers and 14-year-old students

WINDER, Ga. - Sitting on the porch outside his squat, white-shingled house, Ismael Angulo didn’t have the words.

He had not been able to sleep, he said, since police told him Wednesday that his son Christian had been shot and killed inside Apalachee High School, barely a few weeks after starting his freshman year.

Christian, 14, was one of two students and two teachers killed during the shooting, according to law enforcement officials. The other student, Mason Schermerhorn, 14, was remembered by his sister as “very energetic and kind.” Math teacher Cristina Irimie, 53, was patient and enthusiastic about her students. Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, taught math and was a well-liked football coach.

A 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School has been charged with four felony counts of murder after he allegedly opened fire at the school Wednesday, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

As Ismael Angulo sat silently on the porch, people trickled up the stairs: Neighbors carrying boxes of Bojangles chicken and jars of pink lemonade. A friend of Angulo’s sister with Crumbl cookies. Television reporters with cameras and business cards.

One local TV reporter told Angulo that she would be praying that Angulo would be reunited with Christian soon. “I have to be really good so I can see him,” Angulo replied. “I know he straight went to heaven.”

Calls came in - from his godparents, from the funeral home, from their church - and Lupe Godinez, Christian’s maternal great-grandmother, stepped outside, too. She urged him to speak. To say something.

“Do it,” she said in Spanish, “so people know what he was like and what has gone to heaven. … He [Christian] was practically a kid. Not even 15.”

“I can’t,” he replied.

Here’s what we know about the victims:

1. Mason Schermerhorn, 14

When Alanna Schermerhorn first heard her brother Mason was missing, she told herself he had just fled somewhere to hide from the noise and violence when a classmate allegedly began shooting in the halls of Apalachee High School.

Mason had mild autism and often isolated himself, Alanna, 17, said in an interview. “I was thinking he had just ran away because sometimes when he’s stressed he would run away,” she said. “Like, to get away from everything.”

After the shooting, the family circulated desperate messages on social media, asking for the public’s help. “If he is escalated PLEASE use a calm voice with him. Let him know his mom is looking for him for reassurance,” his older sister, Lilianah, 26, wrote in one post.

After the family learned the devastating news - that Mason died in the shooting, along with another classmate and two teachers - Lilianah wrote simply, “Unfortunately my brother did not make it out of school alive.”

Alanna remembered her brother as “very energetic and kind” and “sympathetic for people.” He loved to play video games with Alanna and their little brother, Gavin, like Super Mario Party on Nintendo Switch. He covered his bed in stuffed animals and also collected rubber ducks, she said.

“I wasn’t expecting him to be one of the people killed,” Alanna said Thursday. “I’m just numb.”

2. Christian Angulo, 14

Christian Angulo, who his father called “murcielaguin,” Spanish for little bat, loved to visit relatives in Mexico and play soccer at a field nearby, Ismael Angulo said. “What can I say,” Ismael Angulo said, wiping tears from his eyes. “It’s difficult.”

The family had moved to Winder from California, he said, “in search of peace.”

On a GoFundMe page, Christian’s older sister, Lisette Angulo, described him as “a very good kid and very sweet and so caring.”

“He was so loved by many,” she wrote. “His loss was so sudden and unexpected.. We are truly heartbroken.. He really didn’t deserve this.”

3. Cristina Irimie, 53

Cristina Irimie was a math teacher at Apalachee High School, known for her patience and kindness.

“She was so dedicated to her students. On a scale of 1 to 10, she was an 11,” said Corneliu Caprar, who says he met Irimie more than nine years ago and became close friends.

Irimie was also a member of a tight-knit Romanian community in Georgia, Caprar said. “Our last conversation was about honey because we are beekeepers,” he said of himself and his wife. “I keep thinking about that because [Irimie] wanted some of our honey, and it was a lighthearted conversation.”

In a GoFundMe, Caprar and his wife said Irimie “dedicated her life to shaping the minds and hearts of students and the community.”

Irimie was an active member of SS. Constantine and Helen Church in Lilburn, about 20 miles outside of Atlanta, Rev. Gheorghe Acsente said in an interview. He’s received more than 100 calls since other congregants learned of her death, he said.

She often organized Christmas caroling and helped lead the church’s Romanian dance troop, Acsente said. “I have spoken to her husband many times; this is such a sad shock,” he said.

4. Richard ‘Ricky’ Aspinwall, 39

Richard Aspinwall was “truly special” - as a math teacher, a coach and a father to his two young daughters, said Michael Bowbliss, who coached football alongside Aspinwall for eight years.

“He would let kids decide how good they were going to be, and he would pour into them.”

The two men worked together from 2014 through 2022 at Mountain Valley High School in nearby Lawrenceville, Ga., Bowbliss said. As he did at Apalachee, Aspinwall served as defensive coordinator for the football team and taught geometry, he said.

His deferential, caring approach was as true on the football field as it was inside the classroom, Bowbliss said. Aspinwall was more than anything else a family man and devoted father, raising two daughters to whom “he gave every moment that was available.”

Bowbliss remembered him as a hero. “When the crap got started, he jumped into the fire and did whatever it took to make it work,” Bowbliss said, his voice getting shaky. “In this case, he was trying to save kids’ lives, and we ended up losing a great man, coach and father.”

Aspinwall had the “most kindest soul ever,” Ariel Bowling, 15, who took his math class, said on the “Today” show on Thursday.

“I would just want people to know that he was a really kindhearted man, and he would really push you and he was just really hardworking.”

Aspinwall was “like family basically,” Isaiah Hooks, a sophomore football player, told Fox 5 Atlanta. It was his second year being coached by Aspinwall, he said.

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Wax-Thibodeaux and Alice Crites contributed from Washington. Andrew Jeong contributed to this report from Seoul. Gowen reported from Kansas.