Investigators in the Georgia high school shooting say it was school resource officers (SROs) who brought the shooter into custody. 

The director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations says two SROs reached the 14-year-old suspect within minutes of the initial shots. At least four people were killed, and nine others were hurt in the Wednesday school shooting. 

RELATED: A 14-year-old student fatally shot 4 people in a rampage at a Georgia high school, officials say

“He gave up, got on the ground and the deputy took him into custody,” Sheriff Jud Smith, of Barrow County in Georgia, said about how the shooting ended. 

The deadly shooting is falling, for many, on the first day of school here in Minnesota. For some students, they were greeted back with SROs in their halls, different from last year when agencies across the state pulled their officers due to uncertainty about a state law. 

“It’s always been an important piece to the puzzle,” Undersheriff Jeff Ramacher of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) said about school safety. 

“[Wednesday] was a perfect example of why they’re so important, they were there within minutes, they encountered the suspect. [He] surrendered, and it stopped more unnecessary killing,” Ramacher said. 

He oversees the four SROs the RCSO has in schools this year.

“It takes a village to make that environment, [a] school, safe and school resource officers in schools is part of that equation,” Ramacher said. 

Schools must also take steps themselves to ensure staff and students are prepared — state law requires schools to establish an ’emergency plan’ which must include five lockdown drills every year.