Nashville taking pictures: Shooter kills 3 college students and three adults at Covenant elementary college, police say

CNN
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A shooter who killed three 9-year-old college students and three adults at a personal Christian elementary college in Nashville Monday had maps of the college, left behind writings and scouted a second doable assault location, police stated.

Police recognized the shooter as Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old former scholar on the college, and referred to as the assault focused. Hale was shot and killed by police in the course of the assault, which was the deadliest college taking pictures in practically a 12 months.

Hale, armed with three firearms, entered the Covenant Faculty by taking pictures by a facet door, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake stated at a information convention.

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Hale fired a number of photographs on the primary and second flooring of the college, police stated. A five-member workforce of cops heard the gunfire, went to the second ground and fatally shot the suspect, police spokesperson Don Aaron stated earlier Monday.

The primary name in regards to the taking pictures got here in at 10:13 a.m. and the shooter was useless 14 minutes later, Aaron stated.

Nashville police identified the victims Monday afternoon as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9-year-old college students on the college; Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61, who have been all working on the college.

Koonce was the top of the college, based on Covenant’s website, which additionally lists she attended college in Nashville at Vanderbilt College and Trevecca Nazarene College, together with getting her grasp’s diploma from Georgia State College.

Hill was a custodian on the college, based on Aaron. And Peak was working in its place trainer on the time of the assault, he stated.

Police say the suspect was a scholar on the college at one level however didn’t elaborate. A car situated close by gave clues as to the shooter’s id, Drake stated.

After the assault, authorities discovered Hale had “maps drawn of the college intimately, surveillance, entry factors,” Drake stated.

“We some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this present day, the precise incident,” Drake stated. “We’ve got a map drawn out of how this was all going to happen.”

Police imagine Hale obtained a minimum of two of the weapons legally, Drake stated. Three weapons – an AR-style rifle, an AR-style pistol and a handgun – have been discovered.

Police are investigating a motive and have a “principle” however are persevering with to probe the shooter’s residence and have talked with the suspect’s father, Drake stated. The shooter didn’t have any recognized historical past of psychological sickness, however authorities are “ that because the investigation is ongoing,” he added.

The incident is the nineteenth taking pictures at a college or college thus far this 12 months during which a minimum of one individual was wounded, based on a CNN tally. Final week, two college members have been shot and wounded by a scholar at a highschool in Denver, and the scholar was later discovered useless of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

With six victims, Monday’s assault is the deadliest college taking pictures for the reason that heinous assault in Uvalde, Texas, final Might that left 21 individuals useless.

The Covenant Faculty is a personal Christian college based in 2001 as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church and teaches preschool by sixth grade, according to its website. On a typical day it has 209 college students and 40 to 50 workers members, Aaron stated.

The mass taking pictures garnered a large police and hearth response, and anxious households gathered exterior the college to attend for phrase of their family members.

Avery Myrick, whose mom is a trainer on the college, informed CNN affiliate WSMV her mother texted that she was hiding in a closet and will hear taking pictures all around the college. Myrick later spoke to her mom on the telephone and discovered she was protected.

“Simply getting that preliminary telephone name that she was OK, it clearly brings a ton of reduction, however you’re nonetheless hurting for the individuals on the market who could not get that decision,” she stated.

Jozen Reodica, who works at Shearwater Well being throughout the road from the college, took video of police escorting college students out of the college on Monday. Within the video, the youngsters are holding fingers and strolling in a line down the road.

She informed CNN she realized one thing was mistaken when she noticed a number of police vehicles arrive on the scene.

“They (police) began to shut down the roads. It occurred so quick. I noticed a policeman run to the scene after which after a couple of minutes children have been already crossing,” Reodica stated.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch stated the company is aiding Metro Nashville Police Division on the investigation and can present unbiased oversight on the officer-involved taking pictures side.

Police stated they’re working to research video from the college exhibiting the taking pictures.

President Joe Biden stated in a information convention the taking pictures was “sick” and “heartbreaking” and urged Congress to take additional motion on gun security laws.

“We’ve got to do extra to cease gun violence. It’s ripping our communities aside, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping on the very soul of the nation,” he stated. “And we’ve to do extra to guard our colleges, in order that they aren’t became prisons.”

White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre additionally referred to as on lawmakers to go legal guidelines addressing gun security.

“What number of extra youngsters need to be murdered earlier than Republicans in Congress will step up and act to go the assault weapons ban, to shut loopholes in our background verify system, or to require the protected storage of weapons? We have to do one thing,” she stated.