Kentucky canine responder brings 'a little medicine' to Nashville after school shooting
A Louisville first responder with four legs and golden fur brought comfort last week to people affected by the Covenant School shooting in Tennessee.
Mercy, a 9-year-old golden retriever trained to respond to people in crisis, was one of six comfort dogs to visit communities In Nashville, where six people were shot and killed late last month in an incident that devastated the community and has made international headlines.
The shooting took place on March 27 when a shooter fired 152 rounds in the building and killed three children – Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney – along with staff members Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill.
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The shooter, Audrey Hale, was killed by police minutes after officers responded to the scene.
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Amy Romines and Sherry Ederheimer, Mercy's handlers, went to nearby schools after the shooting to spend time with community members, especially students and teachers. They visited a preschool and a memorial at the base of the Covenant School driveway where people had left stuffed animals and flowers. They also attended a vigil downtown and other facilities.
Romines said one of the biggest tolls the incident took was on parents. Ederheimer said one mother told them it was the first time she felt safe dropping her child off at school after the shooting.
"This was so close to home, and those parents were so emotional just to drop their kids off at school. It was incredibly difficult for them," Romines told The Courier Journal. "You could see the tears in their eyes as they walked up to the entrances of the schools."
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People of all ages interacted with the dogs, which helps those affected "start feeling a release of negative emotions," Ederheimer said. One woman Ederheimer encountered didn't speak for 20 minutes while petting Mercy before eventually beginning a conversation with them.
"She was crying and tearful, a little bit, but when she got up and left, we had a sense that she had let something go — maybe let go some of the grief," she said.
Although younger kids didn't quite grasp what the shooting meant, they knew something was wrong, the handlers said. Seeing Mercy helped return some normalcy to their day, added Ederheimer. A group of children who had been close to the shooting sat with the dogs and giggled while they argued who was their favorite, and a therapist told Ederheimer it was the "first time she'd seen those children smile all week."
Kentucky comfort dog has responded to multiple crises across U.S., including 2019 Dayton, Ohio shooting
Mercy has responded to crises all over the country, said "Top Dog" Doug Netherton, the leader of the ministry.
She went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana after a police shooting left three officers dead in 2016. Ederheimer went with Mercy to Chattanooga, Tennessee when six children died in a school bus crash that same year. And the retriever was in Dayton, Ohio when a 24-year-old killed at least nine people and injured 27 others at a bar in 2019.
In addition to national deployments, Mercy works with community members in Louisville, Netherton said. She visits with at least one group nearly every day, including a children's hospital, kids at the Louisville Free Public Library's St. Matthews branch and veterans. Schools will also request to have Mercy present after the death of a student or teacher. The Lutheran ministry's team only goes where they're invited, and volunteers aren't trained counselors but might offer comfort and a listening ear if folks talk to them first, Netherton added.
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Mercy is one of more than 130 dogs in the Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Ministries, and she's affiliated locally with Our Savior on Nottingham Parkway. She has put in more than 2,000 hours of training through the program, according to Netherton, where she's been trained with basic commands like sit and stay and not to bark, lick or make any startling movements, Ederheimer said. She has also learned certain commands to make her services more accessible to those with disabilities.
Other dogs that responded to the Covenant School shooting came from Georgia, Indiana and Missouri. One dog from Tennessee was also present.
Handler: 'I just feel like I'm bringing in a little medicine, perhaps, or something that will start a healing process'
Lutheran Church Charities is a nonprofit based in Illinois, with a mission to "share the mercy, compassion, presence and proclamation of Jesus Christ to those who are suffering and in need," according to a statement form Deb Baran, director of communications for the organization. The group houses several faith-based teams that respond to disasters. Lutheran Church Charities deploys volunteers domestically and internationally and Baran said organizers do not charge for their services.
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Romines said it was "an honor" to take Mercy to visit the Nashville community, and Ederheimer said it was her "gift of love" to visit with affected people.
"I just feel like I'm bringing in a little medicine, perhaps, or something that will start a healing process," Ederheimer added.
Contact reporter Rae Johnson at RNJohnson@gannett.com. Follow them on Twitter at @RaeJ_33.