Investigators in Nashville studied a “manifesto” written by a 28-year-old former student of a Christian school who shot to death three children and three adults a day earlier at the institution, hoping to learn what motivated the latest US mass shooting.
Police killed the perpetrator of yesterday’s shooting, identified by authorities as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, when they stormed the Covenant School within minutes of gunfire erupting in the private church-based academy.
“In Nashville, this is our worst day, but it could have been worse without this great response. We are very grateful for that,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said in an interview on CNN, noting that the attack was “clearly planned” by the assailant, based on the manifesto authorities found.
Authorities did not immediately offer a motive for the killings.
Yesterday’s violence marked the 90th school shooting – defined as any incident in which a gun is discharged on school property – in the United States this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman.
Last year saw 303 such incidents, the highest of any year in the database, which goes back to 1970.
Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church/School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building. She was armed with 2 assault-type guns and a 9 millimeter pistol. pic.twitter.com/mIk2pDmCwQ
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) March 28, 2023
During a previous press briefing, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale self-identified as being transgender, although Mr Drake offered no further clarity.
He and other officials repeatedly referred to the suspect with female pronouns.
Hale used male pronouns on a LinkedIn page that listed recent jobs in graphic design and grocery delivery.
‘How is this still happening? How are our children still dying?’
A US woman has called on politicians to do more following the latest mass shooting, which has left six people dead at a school in Tennessee | Read more: https://t.co/FJl3R1wf2c pic.twitter.com/Jm8PWdosGo
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 28, 2023
Among various pieces of evidence under examination by police and FBI agents were some writings by the assailant, including the manifesto and a detailed, hand-drawn map of the school showing various entry points, Mr Drake said.
Mr Drake told NBC the manifesto “indicates there was going to be shootings at multiple locations and that the school was one of them”.
He said the Covenant School was singled out for attack but that the individual victims were targeted at random.
Investigators believe Hale harboured “some resentment for having to go to that school” as a child, he said without elaborating.
‘Swift’ police response
Hale, armed with two assault-style weapons, one of them a rifle, as well as a 9mm pistol, gained entry to the school by shooting through the window of a side door, authorities said.
Surveillance camera video posted online by police shows the suspect, wearing camouflage trousers and a black vest over a white T-shirt with a red baseball cap on backwards, blasting through the glass pane of an outer door after driving up to the building in a car.
The footage then shows the assailant stalking through a hallway as alarm lights flash.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department began receiving calls about a shooter at 10.13am, and arriving officers reported hearing gunfire coming from the building’s second floor, police spokesperson Don Aaron told reporters.
Video released today showed Nashville police officers fatally shooting the attacker.
The six minutes of footage, edited together from the body-worn cameras of two responding officers and released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, showed police armed with rifles storming into the building and conducting a room-by-room search.
After clearing several first-floor classrooms, the officers run upstairs to the second floor as gunfire is heard.
The officers run down a hallway – past what appears to be a prone victim – and into a lounge area, where the suspect is seen dropping to the floor after being shot.
“The police department response was swift,” Mr Aaron said.
The three slain school children, all aged nine, were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney.
Also shot dead were Mike Hill, 61, a school custodian; Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher; and Katherine Koonce, 60, listed on the Covenant website as “head of school”.
‘The time is now’
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre noted that President Joe Biden had already taken multiple gun-related actions by executive order but that more needed to be done by politicians to enact comprehensive gun safety laws, including a renewed ban on assault weapons.
“We need Republicans in Congress to show some courage,” she told MSNBC in an interview. “Enough, enough, enough.”
Hours after the shooting, Mr Biden urged politicians to pass tougher gun reform legislation.
“They need to act. The time is now,” Ms Jean-Pierre said.
US Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, said on Twitter that her office stands “ready to assist” those affected by the shooting.
But Rosanne Cash, daughter of the late Nashville country music star Johnny Cash and a singer-songwriter in her own right, responded by criticising Ms Blackburn’s ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby.
Don’t even. You vote against every common sense gun control bill that comes across your desk, you’ve taken over $1 million from the NRA and you rank 14th in all Congress for NRA contributions. Spare us the hand-wringing @MarshaBlackburn https://t.co/3IX0LqhQAQ
— . (@rosannecash) March 27, 2023
“You vote against every common sense gun control bill that comes across your desk, you’ve taken over $1 million from the NRA and you rank 14th in all Congress for NRA contributions. Spare us the hand-wringing,” Ms Cash said on Twitter.
At the state level, in 2021 Tennessee did away with its permit requirement for carrying a concealed handgun and now allows anyone aged 21 and older to carry a firearm, either openly or concealed, without a permit, as long as they are legally allowed to purchase the weapon.
Possessing a handgun is outlawed in Tennessee for anybody who has been convicted of a felony offence involving violence or drugs.
The Covenant School, founded in 2001, is a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Green Hills neighborhood of Tennessee’s state capital, with about 200 students, according to the school’s website.
The school serves preschool through sixth grade and held an active-shooter training programme in 2022, local television station WTVF-TV reported.
Police search for clues in Tennessee school shooting
Source: Viral Trends Report
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