6 Killed in Shooting at Christian School in Nashville
28.03.2023 - 14:57
/ thegavoice.com
In a press conference Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters that earlier Monday morning a 28-year-old local female armed with two “assault-type rifles and a handgun” was killed by responding officers.
“At one point she was a student at that school,” Drake told reporters hours after the shooting at the Covenant School. “But unsure what year […] but that’s what I’ve been told so far.”
The shooter was identified as Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville, who identifies as transgender according to the chief.
According to Drake, three children and three adults were killed in the shooting at The Covenant School on Burton Hills Boulevard, a private Christian school.
Children’s Hospital Vanderbilt University Medical Center spokesperson John Howser told reporters “We can now confirm three children and two adults from the school shooting were transported to our Adult Emergency Department (the two adults) and (the three children) to the Pediatric Emergency Department at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital,” Howser said adding “All five patients have been pronounced dead.”
Police identified the three slain students as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age nine.
The three faculty members killed were Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, both 61, and school head Katherine Koonce, 60.
At his only scheduled public event at the White House, President Joe Biden called the shooting “sick” and renewed his call for Congress to ban assault weapons.
Drake noted that the shooter was killed on the school’s second floor by his officers acknowledging that the victims were students and staff members of the school.
The school has students from preschool through sixth grade and on a normal day has about 200 students and 40 staff