Saturday, 23 November 2024
Saturday, 23 November 2024
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department began receiving calls at 10:13 a.m. of a shooter at the school, and arriving officers reported hearing gunfire coming from the building's second floor, police spokesperson Don Aaron told reporters. Two officers from a five-member team shot the assailant in a lobby area, and the suspect was pronounced dead by 10:27 a.m.
The violence occurred at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school for about 200 students from pre-school to sixth grade. The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9, along with staffers Mike Hill, 61, a school custodian, Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher, and Katherine Koonce, 60, listed on the Covenant website as "head of school."
The killings come as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year. Other students walked to safety on Monday, holding hands as they left their school surrounded by police cars, to a nearby church to be reunited with their parents.
Drake identified the suspect as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, a resident of the Nashville area, and referred to the assailant by female pronouns. The chief said the suspect identified as transgender but provided no further clarity. Addressing an early evening news conference, Drake said police were working on a theory about what may have precipitated the shooting and would "put that out as soon as we can." He said the suspect had no known prior criminal history.
In a subsequent NBC News television interview, Drake said investigators believed the shooting stemmed from "some resentment" the suspect harboured "for having to go to that school" as a younger person.
The police chief did not specify the nature of such presumed resentment, or whether it had anything to do with the suspect's gender identity or the Christian orientation of the school. Drake said the school was singled out for attack but the individual victims were targeted at random.
"It's sick," Biden said, addressing the issue during an event at the White House and urging Congress again to pass a ban on assault-style weapons. U.S. President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban. We have to do more to stop gun violence. It's ripping our communities apart,†Biden said at the White House.“I call on Congress again to pass my assault weapons ban"
