28th March, 2023
The police confirmed on Monday that three of the six persons shot dead at Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, were children of nine-year-old.
CNN quoted the police as saying that the shooter, described as a 28-year-old Audrey Hale, from Nashville, entered the building through a side door and was armed with at least two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
The shooter was believed to be a former student of the school. He was, however, killed during gunfire with the police.
Monday’s shooting marked the 129th mass shooting in the US so far in 2023, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
The Nashville school shooting is the deadliest school shooting in a year, according to CNN.
The shooter was said to have fired multiple shots on the first and second floors of the school. A five-member team of police officers heard the gunfire, went to the second floor and fatally shot the shooter, police spokesperson Don Aaron said earlier Monday.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake told NBC News that the suspect in the attack might have been motivated by unspecified “resentment”.
“There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school,” the police chief told the network’s evening news host, Lester Holt.
Drake said the shooter “targeted random students in the school, just whoever, and persons, whoever she came in contact with, she fired rounds”.
Drake also said the shooter’s so-called manifesto mentioned multiple locations – Convenant School being one of them.