Nashville school shooting :
- Three children and three adults were killed in the attack
- Police killed the attacker, 28, a former student
Armed with two “assault-style” weapons and a handgun, a former student murdered three children and three adults on Monday at a Christian primary school in Nashville after meticulously plotting the slaughter with a detailed map and building surveillance, according to police.
The shooting at the Covenant school in Nashville was the most recent in a string of mass shootings that have left the nation increasingly alarmed.
Officers shot and killed the attacker at the Covenant school, attached to the Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Tennessee state capital.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all nine years old; Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, a custodian, 61; were the victims, according to Nashville police.
The website of the school, a Presbyterian establishment founded in 2001, lists Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. According to her LinkedIn page, she has been the school’s principal since July 2016.
Megan Hill’s day of suffering lasted six hours and was chronicled in Facebook posts in which she identified herself as the victim’s niece.
At around midday local time, she posted, “Shooting at the school where my Dad, my uncle, and my stepmom work. Please pray right now.”
She published an addendum six hours later.
Hill added, “I’m just in shock and disbelief.” “My heart is broken, I cannot comprehend why anyone would attack a school with innocent children inside.”
She added, “My uncle lost his life in this shooting today.” “Pray for all my cousins, Lord help me and my family,” said the brother of my mother.
Joe Biden expressed regret for the “heartbreaking” attack and reiterated his call for Congress to approve significant gun control legislation, including a ban on assault weapons.
“We have to do more to stop gun violence ripping our communities apart,” the president said at the White House. “It’s ripping the soul from this nation.”
The Nashville police chief, John Drake, said: “I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building.”
In 2020, guns overtook auto accidents as the leading cause of death among children and teens.
Rachel Dibble, who was at the church as families found their children, described the scene as everyone being in “complete shock”.
“People were involuntarily trembling,” said Dibble, whose children attend a different private school in Nashville. “The children … started their morning in their cute little uniforms, they probably had some Froot Loops and now their whole lives changed today.”
