Nashville school shooting: Suspect fired indiscriminately at victims, police say – National | 24CA News
The shooter who killed three college students and three employees members at a Christian college in Nashville legally purchased seven weapons in recent times and hid the weapons from their dad and mom earlier than finishing up the assault by firing indiscriminately at victims and spraying gunfire by way of doorways and home windows, police mentioned Tuesday.
The violence Monday at The Covenant School was the newest college taking pictures to roil the nation and was deliberate rigorously. The shooter had drawn an in depth map of the varsity, together with potential entry factors, and performed surveillance of the constructing earlier than finishing up the bloodbath, authorities mentioned.
The suspect, Audrey Hale, 28, was a former pupil on the college. Hale didn’t goal particular victims — amongst them three 9-year-olds and the top of the varsity — however did goal “this school, this church building,” police spokesperson Don Aaron mentioned at a news convention Tuesday.
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Hale was beneath a physician’s look after an undisclosed emotional dysfunction and was not recognized to police earlier than the assault, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake mentioned on the news convention.
If police had been advised that Hale was suicidal or homicidal, “then we would have tried to get those weapons,” Drake mentioned. “But as it stands, we had absolutely no idea who this person was or if (Hale) even existed.”
Tennessee doesn’t at the moment have a “red flag” regulation, which lets police step in and take firearms away from individuals who threaten to kill.
On Tuesday night time, Tennessee’s governor mentioned one of many victims, 61-year-old substitute instructor Cynthia Peak, was a detailed buddy of his spouse, Maria, and that the 2 had been scheduled to have dinner after Peak taught that day.
“Maria woke up this morning without one of her best friends,” Gov. Bill Lee mentioned, including that his spouse as soon as taught with Peak and one other sufferer, Katherine Koonce, and the ladies and “have been family friends for decades.”
Hale legally purchased seven firearms from 5 native gun shops, Drake mentioned. Three of them had been utilized in Monday’s taking pictures. Police spokesperson Brooke Reese mentioned Hale purchased the weapons between October 2020 and June 2022.
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Hale’s dad and mom believed their youngster had offered one gun and didn’t personal any others, Drake mentioned, including that Hale “had been hiding several weapons within the house.”
Hale’s motive is unknown, Drake mentioned. In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Drake mentioned investigators don’t know what drove Hale however consider the shooter had “some resentment for having to go to that school.”
Drake, at Tuesday’s news convention, described “several different writings by Hale” that point out different areas and The Covenant School.
Asked at a Senate listening to whether or not the Justice Department would open an investigation into whether or not the taking pictures was a hate crime focusing on Christians, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland mentioned federal officers had been working with native police to determine a motive.
Police have launched movies of the taking pictures, together with edited surveillance footage that reveals the shooter’s automotive driving as much as the varsity, glass doorways being shot out and the shooter ducking by way of one in all them.
Additional video, from Officer Rex Engelbert’s bodycam, reveals a girl assembly police outdoors as they arrive and telling them that every one the kids had been locked down, “but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are.”
The lady then directs officers to Fellowship Hall and says folks inside had simply heard gunshots. Three officers, together with Engelbert, search rooms one after the other, holding rifles and saying themselves as police.
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Nashville college taking pictures: Suspect had purchased 7 weapons in recent times, police say
The video reveals officers climbing stairs to the second ground and getting into a foyer space, adopted by a barrage of gunfire and an officer yelling twice: “Get your hands away from the gun.” Then the shooter is proven immobile on the ground.
Police recognized Engelbert, a four-year member of the drive, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year member, because the officers who fatally shot Hale. The White House mentioned President Joe Biden spoke Tuesday with Drake, Engelbert and Callazo to thank them for his or her bravery.
Police response occasions to highschool shootings have come beneath larger scrutiny after the assault in Uvalde, Texas, through which 70 minutes handed earlier than regulation enforcement stormed the classroom. In Nashville, police mentioned about eight minutes handed from the preliminary name to when officers arrived on the scene.
Surveillance video reveals a time stamp of simply earlier than 10:11 a.m., when the attacker shot out the doorways. Police mentioned they obtained the decision a couple of shooter at 10:13. Aaron mentioned in an e mail Tuesday that dispatch information present officers arrived on campus shortly earlier than 10:22.
At about 10:24, officers engaged the suspect, the chief mentioned in the course of the news convention. Within two minutes of that, the suspect was down, in keeping with the dispatch information.
“There were police cars that had been hit by gunfire. As officers were approaching the building, there was gunfire going off,” Drake mentioned.
“We feel, our response right now, from what I’ve seen, I don’t have a particular problem with it. But we always want to get better. We always want to get there in two or three minutes,” he mentioned, including that site visitors was “locked down” on the time.
Traffic was certainly stopped alongside a close-by two-lane street with a turning lane as police tried to weave their strategy to the varsity.
Police have given unclear info on Hale’s gender. For hours Monday, police recognized the shooter as a girl. Later within the day, the police chief mentioned Hale was transgender. After the news convention, Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale recognized.
In an e mail Tuesday, police spokesperson Kristin Mumford mentioned Hale “was assigned female at birth. Hale did use male pronouns on a social media profile.” Later Tuesday, on the news convention, Drake referred to Hale with feminine pronouns.
Authorities recognized the lifeless kids as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The adults had been Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
The web site of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian college based in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the top of the varsity. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the varsity since July 2016. Peak was a substitute instructor, and Hill was a custodian, in keeping with investigators.
Koonce was remembered as somebody who would run towards hazard, not away from it.
“I guarantee you if there were kids missing (during the shooting), Katherine was looking for them,” buddy Jackie Bailey mentioned. “And that’s probably how she got in the way — just trying to do something for somebody else. She would give up her own life in order to save somebody else’s.”
Founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, the varsity is within the prosperous Green Hills neighborhood simply south of downtown Nashville. It has about 200 college students from preschool by way of sixth grade and roughly 50 employees members.
Before Monday’s violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass killings at Ok-12 colleges since 2006 through which 4 or extra folks had been killed inside a 24-hour interval, in keeping with a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters had been males.
The database doesn’t embody college shootings through which fewer than 4 folks had been killed, which have change into way more widespread in recent times. Last week alone, for instance, college shootings occurred in Denver and the Dallas space inside two days of one another.
