Robin Wolfenden prays Tuesday at a makeshift memorial for victims outside the Covenant School building at the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tenn., a day after a shooting at the school.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Nashville authorities on Tuesday released graphic body camera footage showing the fatal confrontation between police and an armed assailant who attacked a grade school Monday morning.
Six people — including three children — were killed in the shooting, and the suspected attacker was killed by police within minutes of the first call of an active shooter.
The shooting occurred at the Covenant School, a private elementary school on the grounds of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood.
The massacre drew messages of sympathy from politicians including President Biden and others across the country, and it reignited calls for Congress to do more to prevent school shootings.
According to the national Gun Violence Archive, there have been 130 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year.
Families leave a reunification center in Nashville on Monday after three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at the Covenant School.
John Amis/AP
John Amis/AP
Here’s what we know about the Nashville shooting and those who died:
How the shooting unfolded
Authorities say they received the first call of an active shooter at Covenant School at 10:13 a.m. local time.
The attacker, who police identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale of the Nashville area, was a former student of the school. Authorities initially identified Hale as a woman, but later clarified that Hale used he/him pronouns.
Surveillance footage shows Hale driving to the school in a Honda Fit and then shooting out the glass of a side door in order to enter the building. Hale was armed with two AR-style guns — a rifle and a handgun — as well as a pistol, investigators said.
Local police arrived at the school within minutes of the first 911 call and began searching for the shooter. Hale also shot at responding officers through a second-story window, authorities said.
Clergy embrace during a community vigil at Belmont United Methodist Church in the aftermath of school shooting in Nashville on Monday.
John Bazemore/AP
John Bazemore/AP
Graphic body camera footage released Tuesday shows multiple officers sweeping the school, as an alarm blares and gunshots are heard in the distance. The five-person team moves through hallways and rushes past students’ cubbies before finding Hale on the second floor near a window.
Officers Rex Englebert, a four-year veteran of the force, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran, shot and killed Hale at 10:27 — 14 minutes after the first emergency call.
The victims
On Monday afternoon, police identified the three students and three staff members who were killed:
- Evelyn Dieckhaus, age 9, was a third-grader at Covenant School and her sister was a fifth-grader, according to The Tennessean. At a vigil, Evelyn’s sister cried as she said, “I don’t want to be an only child.”
- Hallie Scruggs, age 9, was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the senior pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, according to CBS News.
- William Kinney, age 9
- Cynthia Peak, age 61, was a substitute teacher, according to authorities.
- Katherine Koonce, age 60, was identified on the school’s website as head of the Covenant School.
- Mike Hill, age 61, worked as a janitor at the school, police said.
The investigation
Police haven’t disclosed whether they’ve uncovered a motive for the shooting.
Investigators said on Tuesday that they were reviewing writings by Hale, who had attended the Covenant School, and searching a nearby house.
Hale apparently also had detailed maps drawn of the school that identified entry points and surveillance.
Of the three guns Hale used in the shooting, at least two were purchased legally, investigators said.