Police identify shooter in attack at Nashville school that killed 6, including 3 children
The shooter, who was killed by police, was described as a 28-year-old woman armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun.
A shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville left three children and three adult staff members dead, authorities said Monday.
The shooter, described by the Metro Nashville Police Department as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a Nashville resident who authorities said identified as transgender, also was killed. Authorities initially indicated incorrectly the assailant was a teenager.
Don Aaron, a police spokesman, said officers engaged the shooter, who was fatally shot in the confrontation.
The shooter, described as a 28-year-old woman, was armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun, officials say.
The shooter at the Covenant School, which serves about 200 students in preschool through sixth grade, was armed with at least two assault weapons and a handgun, Aaron said. It was not immediately known whether the person had been wearing body armor, officials said.
“We know there were two AR-style weapons — one a rifle, another was an AR-style pistol, and the other was a handgun,” Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a news conference Monday. “We believe two of those may have been obtained legally, locally here.”
He also said the attacker had detailed maps of the school, including surveillance and entry points, and “multiple rounds of ammunition.”
The person was “prepared for confrontation with law enforcement,” Drake said.
Drake said the shooter was a former student at Covenant School, which according to its website, is part of Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Hours after the shooting, investigators were seen on video swarming a Nashville residence a few miles from the school. Drake said the shooter lived with their parents and is believed to have acted alone.
“We have a manifesto. We have some writings that we’re going over,” Drake said, adding that investigators believe the attacker’s gender identity may have been part of the motive in the shooting.
Tennessee has long championed its musical and creative communities, but some artists feel threatened by its new laws.
Tennessee has been at the forefront of a recent conservative movement targeting transgender people and others in the LGBTQ community.
Last month, state legislators passed a bill that bans transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care. Conservatives have claimed such care is inappropriate for children regardless of what they, their families or their doctors think. Critics have decried the law as an invasion of transgender people’s rights and a threat to the mental and physical health of transgender kids, who can suffer greatly when they are unable to express their identity.
Earlier this month, Tennessee became the first state in the nation to severely limit drag performances by passing a bill that defines “male or female impersonators” as adult cabaret performers — thus banning drag performances from public spaces or anywhere children may be present.
Conservatives have suggested drag queens are sexualized performers who have no business performing in front of children, even when those performances have nothing to do with sex and are limited to children’s book readings. LGBTQ advocates and other critics of the law have lambasted it as another baseless attack on the LGBTQ community and particularly on transgender people, who they say could be unfairly targeted under the law based on their identity and appearance.
The laws are part of a much larger national campaign by conservative pundits, political leaders and policymakers to cast LGBTQ people as threats to children and to question the rights of transgender people overall.
The deadly encounter at the Covenant School unfolded over roughly 14 minutes. Police received the initial call about an active shooter at 10:13 a.m.
Officers began clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, Aaron said during a news briefing.
Two officers from a five-member team opened fire in response, fatally shooting the suspect at 10:27 a.m., he said. There were no officers present or assigned to the church-run school at the time of the shooting.
Police identified the victims as: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60, a substitute teacher; and Mike Hill, 61, a custodian. The school’s website lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper said that his city “joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting.”
“My heart goes out to the families of the victims,” he said in a tweet. “Our entire city stands with you.”
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Iaman Masri, owner of Fresh Wraps & Smoothies, a deli down the street from the Covenant School, said he heard what sounded like fireworks Monday morning and then police arrived.
“The cops came all around and came inside the building,” he said, referring to the office building that houses his restaurant. “We feel really bad for what’s happened.”
Many parents and grandparents of Covenant students work in the office building, he said, and sometimes school events use lunches prepared in his eatery.
“I hope we have more security for the area,” he said. “The kids are too young.”
Gun violence has become the drumbeat of our days. We say we’re shocked, but we’re really not. We say we’re in disbelief, yet we’re really not.
In a Monday news conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden had been briefed and was in touch with federal and local officials involved in the shooting.
Jean-Pierre called on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban. “The president has been very clear,” she said. “We need to take more action.”
She noted that Biden earlier this month signed an executive order aimed at curbing gun violence in the wake of the deadly Monterey Park dance hall shooting. But, she said, further action from Congress is needed to create more robust gun control to help ensure these shootings stop.
“We can’t keep seeing what we saw today,” she added. “This cannot be happening. Our administrators, our educators ... their lives can’t be put on the line here when they’re going to teach our kids.”
The show, airing on ‘L.A. Times Today’ on Spectrum News 1, explores the repercussions of the Jan. 21 shooting in Monterey Park and the ways members of the public have responded to the epidemic of gun violence in California.
Biden addressed the shooting Monday afternoon, saying, “We have to do more to stop gun violence.”
“It is ripping our communities apart, ripping at the soul of the nation,” he said during an event in Washington in which he again called on Congress to pass the assault weapons ban. “We have to do more to protect our schools.
“It’s about time we make more progress,” he said, adding that he wanted to send his “concern and hearts out to so many parents out there.”
First Lady Jill Biden, who was speaking before a conference in Washington, said news of the shooting left her “without words.”
“Our children deserve better,” the first lady said. “We stand — all of us — with Nashville in prayer.”
A new poll finds broad public support for a variety of gun restrictions, including many supported by majorities of Republicans and gun owners.
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; a first-grader who shot his teacher in Virginia in January; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, an independent online database that tracks gun violence using police, government, media and other public data, there have been 129 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, including Monday’s massacre in Nashville. The organization defines a mass shooting as a minimum of four people shot — either injured or killed — not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured.
The Nashville attack follows a string of mass shootings in California, including the Monterey Park shooting that left 11 people dead; a massacre in Goshen in which six family members were gunned down; and a workplace dispute at Half Moon Bay that left seven farmworkers dead.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention organization, ranks Tennessee 29th for its firearm legislation, one of the weakest in the nation. While the state has laws that bar some people from owning a gun — including those with domestic abuse convictions, people with mental health issues or felons — it does not require background checks for purchases or permits to carry concealed weapons. It also does not have “red flag” laws that would permit a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person believed to present a danger to themselves or others.
Times staff writer Erin Logan and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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