Quick Take
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake confirmed that authorities had identified the assailant, although they had not released her name. The 28-year-old was a former student at Covenant School, Drake said.
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A shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville has left at least three children and three adult staff members dead, authorities said Monday. Police said the shooter, described as a 28-year-old woman, also was killed.
Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metro Nashville Police Department, said a “female shooter was firing, the officers engaged her, she was fatally shot by responding police officers,” he said.
The shooter was “armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun,” Aaron said.
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake confirmed that authorities had identified the assailant, although they had not released her name. She was a former student at Covenant School, Drake said.
The Nashville Fire Department said in a tweet there were “multiple patients” after an “active aggressor” at the Covenant School. The school, which serves about 200 students in preschool through sixth grade, according to its website, is part of Covenant Presbyterian Church.
The victims were pronounced dead upon arrival at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, according to Craig Boerner, a spokesperson for Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper said that his city “joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting” after the attack, which occurred about 10:15 a.m.
“My heart goes out to the families of the victims,” he said in a tweeta tweet. “Our entire city stands with you.”
Iaman Masri, owner of Fresh Wraps & Smoothies, a deli down the street from the Covenant School, said he heard what sounded like fireworks Monday morning and then police arrived.
“The cops came all around and came inside the building,” he said, referring to the office building that houses his restaurant. “We feel really bad for what’s happened.”
Many parents and grandparents of Covenant students work in the office building, he said, and sometimes school events use lunches prepared in his eatery.
“I hope we have more security for the area,” he said. “The kids are too young.”
In a Monday news conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden had been briefed and was in touch with federal and local officials involved in the shooting.
Jean-Pierre called on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban.
“The president has been very clear,” she said. “We need to take more action.”
Jean-Pierre noted that Biden earlier this month signed an executive order aimed at curbing gun violence in the wake of the deadly Monterey Park shooting. But, she said, further action from Congress is needed to create more robust gun control to help ensure these shootings stop.
“We can’t keep seeing what we saw today,” she added. “This cannot be happening. Our administrators, our educators ... their lives can’t be put on the line here when they’re going to teach our kids.”
The killings come as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year; a first-grader who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
