NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The former student who shot through the doors of a Christian elementary school in Nashville, killing three children and three adults, drew a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and supervised the building before declaring the massacre. feed.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake has not said exactly what prompted the gunman to open fire at The Covenant School Monday morning before being killed by police. But he gave chilling examples of the shooter’s elaborate planning for the targeted attack, the latest in a string of mass shootings in a country increasingly unnerved by school bloodshed.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we are discussing related to this date, the actual incident,” he told reporters. “We drew a map of how this was all going to take place.”
He said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the shooter “had some resentment about having to go to that school.”
The victims included three 9-year-old children, the school’s top administrator, a substitute teacher and a custodian. Amid the chaos, a familiar ritual played out: panicked parents rushed to the school to see if their children were safe and tearfully hugged their children, and a stunned community held vigils for the victims.
Rachel Dibble, who was at a nearby church where children were taken to be reunited with their parents, described the scene as having everyone in “complete shock”.
“People were shaking involuntarily,” she said. “The kids…started their morning in their cute little uniforms. They probably had some Froot Loops and now their whole lives have changed today.”
Police provided unclear information about the shooter’s gender. For hours, police identified the shooter as a 28-year-old woman and eventually identified the person as Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Then, at a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said Hale was transgender. After the press conference, police spokesman Don Aaron declined to explain how Hale currently identified himself.
Authorities said Hale was armed with two “assault weapons” and a handgun. According to the chief, at least two of them were legally obtained in the Nashville area. Police said a search of Hale’s home turned up a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other unspecified evidence.
The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged 9, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.
The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists Katherine Koonce as the principal of the school. According to her LinkedIn profile, she has been running the school since July 2016. According to investigators, Peak was a substitute teacher and Hill was a custodian.
Founded as a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, The Covenant School is located in the affluent neighborhood of Green Hills, just south of downtown Nashville, which is home to the famous Bluebird Café – a place typically loved by musicians and songwriters .
The school has about 200 students from kindergarten through sixth grade, as well as about 50 staff.
“Our community is heartbroken,” a statement from the school said. “We are mourning a huge loss and are in shock after the terror that destroyed our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our teachers and staff and beginning the healing process.
Before Monday’s violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass murders at K-12 schools since 2006 that killed four or more people in a 24-hour period, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in collaboration with Northeastern University. In all cases, the shooters were men.
The database does not include school shootings that killed fewer than four people, which have become much more common in recent years. Last week alone, for example, school shootings occurred within two days of each other in Denver and the Dallas area.
Monday’s tragedy unfolded in about 14 minutes. Police received the first report of an active shooter at 10:13 a.m
Officers began cleaning the first floor of the school when they heard gunfire from the second floor, Aaron said. Police later said the gunman fired at arriving officers from a second-floor window and came armed with substantial ammunition.
Two officers from a five-person squad opened fire, killing the suspect at 10:27 a.m., Aaron said.
Late Monday night, police released about two minutes of edited surveillance video showing the gunman’s car driving towards the school from several angles, including one in which children can be seen playing on swings in the background. Next, an interior view shows glass doors to the school being shot out and the gunman ducking through one of the shattered doors.
More inside footage shows the gunman walking down a school hallway with a long-barreled shotgun and walking into a room marked “church office,” then coming back out. In the last part of the footage, the gunman can be seen walking down another long corridor with his gun drawn. The shooter is not seen interacting with anyone else on the video, which has no sound.
Aaron said no police officers were present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.
Speaking at the White House on Monday, President Joe Biden called the shooting a “family’s worst nightmare” and again pleaded with Congress to pass a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons.
A teetering city mourned during multiple vigils Monday night. At Belmont United Methodist Church, sniffles of tears filled the background as wake attendees sang, knelt in prayer, and lit candles. They lamented the national cycle of violent and deadly shootings.
“We need to step back. We need to breathe. We need to grieve,” said Paul Purdue, the church’s senior pastor. “We need to remember. We need to make room for others who are grieving. We need to hear the cries of our neighbors. ”
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Contributors to this report were Associated Press writers Kristin Hall in Nashville; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles; Beatrice Dupuy and Larry Fenn in New York; and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington; as well as AP researchers Randy Herschaft and Rhonda Shafner in New York.
