Latest updates on Covenant School shooting
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Metro Nashville Police say a former student carrying two assault rifles and a handgun killed three students and three adults at Nashville’s Covenant School on Monday, March 23.
The suspect, identified by police as a 28-year-old transgender man, entered the school through a side entrance and started shooting.
Just before 10:30 a.m., police arrived at the school and located the suspect in a lobby on the second floor of the school, where they fatally shot him.
Follow us for updates in this developing story.
Edit crime scene
MNPD spokesman Don Aaron said police will stay at the scene and process evidence.
Aaron said body cam footage of the police response to the mass shooting will be released either Monday night or Tuesday.
Honoring those killed in the Covenant School shooting
Several vigils will be held Monday to honor the three children and three adults killed in the mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School.
Here is a list of vigils planned across Nashville:
6 p.m. Bethlehem UMC, 2419 Bethlehem Loop Road https://twitter.com/stevenlefebvre/status/1640438341018476544
6 p.m. Woodmont Christian 3601 Hillsboro Pikehttps://twitter.com/PreacherClay/status/1640439268073148416)
6:30 p.m., Christ Presbyterian Church, 2323 Old Hickory Blvd.
6:30 p.m. Christ UMC, 508 Franklin Rd. Franklin
18:30 Belmont UMC, 2007 Acklen Ave Nashville
7:30 p.m. Church of the City (downtown) at Rocketown 601 4th Ave S Nashville
Tuesday, march 28
4 p.m. Davidson Academy Prayer Garden, 1414 Old Hickory Blvd
Police: The alleged Covenant School shooter targeted another school
Another Nashville location was mentioned, but Hale’s threat analysis of that location found there was too much security, Drake said. The police are also continuing this investigation. The location was not specified.
Nashville police find manifesto, plan
Police Chief John Drake said investigators found a manifest and plan during a search of a home on Brightwood Avenue after contacting Hale’s father at the home.
Hale had no criminal history. Two of the three guns used by Hale were obtained locally, according to police.
Nashville school shooting identified
Police identified the shooter by his birth name Audrey Hale, 28, and did not provide any other name. He was a transgender man who used masculine pronouns.
Police found maps drawn by the school with surveillance and access points.
He shot through one of the doors to enter the school, police say.
Nashville sports stars heartbroken after filming
The Tennessee Titans released a statement via Twitter on Monday expressing their condolences “to the families and friends of the victims and to the entire Covenant School community.”
Several Titans players including running back Derrick Henry, published Expressions of Fear.
“I am heartbroken and sickened by the lives lost today,” Henry wrote.
Nashville SC midfielder Dax McCarty said in a tweet he drives past the Covenant School every day on his way to practice.
“It’s easy to wallow in your own misery after a bad game or a bad day, but news like this hits you like a freight train in the chest and you realize how trivial those feelings are,” McCarty wrote. “Devastated for these families and our community.”
Nashville shooting victims identified
The six victims fatally shot by the active gunman at Covenant School are identified as follows: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged 9, Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61 years.
Koonce was the school’s principal.
About the neighborhood where the shooting took place
The community where Covenant School is located is one of the most affluent in Tennessee. It includes the cities of Green Hills, Belle Meade, and Forest Hills, as well as areas in Williamson County. The private Christian school’s 37215 zip code has one of the highest median household incomes in the state and enjoys lively shopping districts.
In 2020, the 37215 ZIP code ranked the area as the most expensive place to buy a home, with a median selling price of $719,000.
Families rushing to Vanderbilt University Medical Center
A heavy vehicle presence was seen shortly after the shooting as ambulances and police vehicles flooded Vanderbilt University Medical Center. All afternoon, parents and family members could be seen rushing into the children’s emergency center, ushered in by the subway police. Some could be seen clutching tissues and phones as they ran into the facility, and wails from family members could be heard across the parking lot.
As of 3:45 p.m., spokespeople for Vanderbilt could not reveal the number of young victims at the facility.
Raid on nearby house follows investigation into shooting
Police and at least one FBI agent cordoned off a section of Brightwood Avenue around 3 p.m. Monday, going in and out of a Tudor-style home on the 3000 block. The house is three miles from the school. Neighbors huddled together and chatted back and forth as they watched police activity. Bowen Satterfield, 16, was at his home nearby when he heard a loud bang around 1:30 p.m. “I thought something was wrong in the church,” he said. “Then I heard it again.”
More:What we know about the Covenant School shooting in Nashville
Satterfield said he called his friend Drew. Together they set out to investigate and found dozens of police officers in the house. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said 18-year-old Drew Thornton. “It’s a quiet area.”
Suspect in Nashville shooting is said to have been a former student
MNPD chief John Drake said the suspect in the shooting, a 28-year-old white woman, was a former Covenant School student.
According to police, the shooter entered the building through a side door and opened fire. Within 14 minutes, a team of five officers followed up firing into a second-floor lobby, where they fatally shot the woman.
Before the shot, the mass shooter killed three children and three adults, according to police.