Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old former student of The Covenant School in Nashville, shot and killed three children and three employees of the school. According to the police, Hale had thoroughly planned the attack at the school and was heavily armed with “assault-type rifles and a handgun.” She was later killed by the officers at the scene. Three 9-year-old students who were killed are Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney. The staff members killed by the attacker are school head Katherine Koonce (60), substitute teacher Cynthia Peak (61), and custodian Mike Hill (61). The survivors of the attack were taken to the Woodmont Baptist Church to reunite with their parents.
NBC News reports:
A heavily armed former student shot through a locked school door before killing three children and three staff members at a private Christian campus in Nashville on Monday, authorities said.
In addition to the three 9-year-old students, the 28-year-old attackerfatally wounded a custodian, a substitute teacher and the head of school before being killed by responding officers, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said.
Audrey Hale had planned extensively for the violence at The Covenant School on Burton Hills Boulevard, police said.
“There were maps drawn of the school, in detail of surveillance, entry points,” Drake said.
The shooter, who was killed on the school’s second floor, had two “assault-type rifles and a handgun,” an official said.
The three students killed were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, police tweeted.
Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, school head Katherine Koonce, 60, and custodian Mike Hill, 61, were also killed, police said. Koonce is a Vanderbilt University graduate who had a doctorate in education, according to the school’s website.
Students of the school, which serves preschool students through sixth graders, were bused to Woodmont Baptist Church, 2 miles away, where they were reunited with their parents.
Police said that they first got calls about the shooter at 10:13 a.m. (11:13 a.m. ET) and that Nashville firefighters first reported their personnel were responding to an “active aggressor” at 10:39 a.m.
“The police department response was swift,” police spokesperson Don Aaron told reporters.
Read the full article at NBC News.
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