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Police: Nashville shooter fired indiscriminately at victims

Police: Nashville shooter fired indiscriminately at victims
In terms of targeting other buildings, other places, there were some writings in the manifesto about other locations. But as far as it being an actual target, I can't confirm that at this time, you tell us about the Children and the people who were targeted, *** walker with CNN just about the six victims who were killed. Where exactly were they, you know, were they walking through the hallways when this happened? And I also heard peripherally that perhaps the head of the school may have ran towards the gun of the shooter. It's very possible the head of the school could have done that. I can't confirm that one way or the other. I do know she was in the hallway by herself. There was *** confrontation, I'm sure you can tell the way she was laying in the hallway. There was the custodian, the African American and she shot through the door to enter. She sprayed rounds through the glass, striking him. You could see where, where he came to rest as far as the others. They were just spread out in different locations. Confrontation that you said between say it was *** confrontation, but they were met, she met the head person in the hallway. Thank you chief. You mentioned the guns, the multiple guns and that the shooter was under the care of *** doctor. Is there any law in this state that would allowed police to take those guns away from this person? Had it been reported? If it had been reported, there's not *** law for that but had it been reported that she was suicidal or that she was going to kill someone and had been made known to us, then we would have tried to get those weapons. But as it stands, we had absolutely no idea actually who this person was if she even existed. So, can you talk *** little bit about, what else did the parents say? Did they expect anything like this to happen? So we know yesterday the MS Hill was leaving out of the residence, she had *** red bag, they asked her what was in the red bag and I think she just dismissed it because it was *** motherly thing. And I didn't look in the bag because at the time she didn't know that her daughter had any weapons and didn't think any differently again. They lost *** child. So it's very traumatic for the watching the body. I think you could you talk about the police response? I know they engaged the shooter pretty quickly once they got to the school. But can you talk about the events that led up from when they got the call. What time did they arrive at the school? And could you talk about that time? Because here about maybe like 14 minutes or so. Yeah. So they got the call at 10, 13 and by 10, 24 they had engaged the suspect as they arrived on the property. There were police cars being hit by gunfire. The suspect was in an upper level. We believe there's been some training of being able to shoot from *** higher level and her gunfire from the video I've seen she stood away from the glass so she wouldn't be an easy target to be shot. But as officers were approaching the building, there was gunfire going on. They went in, they went through door by door as we clear buildings, they heard gunfire and immediately ran to that and then took care of this horrible situation. And how long did it take officers to actually get to the school initially? From when the first call came in? From the time it went out from 10, 13 to 10, 24 it was over at the exact time, arrival time. I'm not sure I know that myself, I ran emergency and as I got there, they were coming out bloody and all kinds of things were happening. So I barely missed being able or being there to go in as well. So it was really quick the response and I think you would. Yeah, I was just going to ask you about the two officers whose body cam we've seen this morning. Have they ever been placed in *** situation like that before? To my knowledge, I do not remember if those two in particular have been in that situation. Also, Collazo has worked as *** paramedic with the SWAT team, so I'm sure he's had some type of weapons training. I was really impressed that when all that was going on, the danger that somebody took control and said, let's go, let's go, let's go and win in and took care and just try to end this situation. But as far as being in this before, I'm unsure. You, *** friend of the family has reported *** friend of the hall family has reportedly said that Audrey was autistic. Can you speak to that if you know if that's in fact true, I can't confirm that I've heard that, but I can't confirm if that's true or not. Just one more question, one more question and we're going to stop one more from the officers. How are they faring today? 24 hours on any indication of the significance of yesterday? Why the shooter may have done this yesterday? And also, do you have anything that could indicate whether the school was targeted for religious reasons? Have? I can't confirm either. I'm not sure uh if that we're approaching *** holy period of Easter and all of that. I, I can't confirm any of that. Do not know. Um And, and so why she targeted that particular church. We do know she was *** student at that uh at that church at one point. Uh But I'm sure right now that was the reason why. And I think you take one more just on your, on your two officers there. How are they feeling today? 24 hours? So I, I, I talked to them uh earlier um and they're trying to decompress, trying to make sense of all of this. I talked to President Biden, he's going to reach out and talk to them as well. They're just trying to do whatever they can with their families and just kind of remove themselves from all of this. You 14 minutes, Chief Drake, would you say the 40 minute response time from getting the call to arriving to the school? Is that acceptable? Is that something you want to look back at and see if that was that there could have been *** quicker response time. So I'll answer that we evaluate each and every situation. And so part of, one of my principles is we're always looking to be innovative and evolve to get better. And so we look at every single incident we have and if there's *** way to get better, we feel *** response right now. From what I've seen, I don't have *** particular problem with it, but we always want to get better. We always want to get there in 23 minutes. And so there's *** lot of things that could have happened, traffic was locked down, etcetera. So, but we're always looking to get.
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Police: Nashville shooter fired indiscriminately at victims
The person who killed three children and three adults at a Christian school in Nashville legally bought seven firearms in recent years and hid the guns from their parents before the attack, police said Tuesday.The violence Monday at The Covenant School is the latest school shooting to roil the nation. Three 9-year-old students were killed, as well as the head of the grade school, a custodian and a substitute teacher.The suspect, Audrey Hale, 28, was a former student at the school. Police said the shooter did not target specific victims.Authorities said Hale was not on their radar before the attack. Police say Hale was under a doctor's care for an undisclosed emotional disorder.Police have released videos of the shooting, including edited surveillance footage that shows the shooter's car driving up to the school, glass doors being shot out and the shooter ducking through one of them.Additional video, from Officer Rex Engelbert's bodycam, shows a woman greeting police outside as they arrive at The Covenant School on Monday. "The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don't know where they are," she tells police."OK, yes, ma'am," Engelbert replies.The woman then directs officers to Fellowship Hall and says people inside had just heard gunshots. "Upstairs are a bunch of kids," she says.Three officers, including Engelbert, search rooms one by one, holding rifles. "Metro Police," officers yell."Let's go, let's go," one officer yells.As alarms are heard going off in the school, one officer says, "It sounds like it's upstairs."Officers climb stairs to the second floor and enter a lobby area. "Move in," an officer yells. Then a barrage of gunfire is heard."Get your hands away from the gun," an officer yells twice. Then the shooter is shown motionless on the floor.Police earlier said Hale had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the massacre, authorities said.Police response times to school shootings have come under greater scrutiny after the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in which 70 minutes passed before law enforcement stormed the classroom. In Nashville, police have said 14 minutes passed from the initial call about a shooter in the school to when the suspect was killed, but they have not said how long it took them to arrive.Surveillance video of The Covenant School grounds released by police shows a time stamp of just before 10:11 a.m., when the glass doors were shot out by the shooter. Police said they received a call about a shooter at 10:13 a.m. but have not said precisely what time they arrived, and the edited bodycam footage didn't include time stamps. A police spokesperson didn't immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking when they arrived or whether any version of the video includes time stamps.Police have given unclear information on Hale's gender. For hours Monday, police identified the shooter as a woman. At a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said Hale was transgender. After the news conference, police spokesperson Don Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale identified.In an email Tuesday, police spokesperson Kristin Mumford said Hale "was assigned female at birth. Hale did use male pronouns on a social media profile."The victims were children Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all age 9. The adults were Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016. Peak was a substitute teacher, and Hill was a custodian, according to investigators.Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake did not say exactly what drove Hale but said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the shooter had "some resentment for having to go to that school."Drake provided chilling examples of the shooter's elaborate planning for the targeted attack, the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country that has grown increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools."We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we're going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident," he told reporters. "We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place."Authorities said Hale was armed with two "assault-style" weapons, as well as a handgun. At least two of them were believed to have been obtained legally in the Nashville area, according to the chief. Police said a search of Hale's home turned up a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other unspecified evidence.President Joe Biden said he had spoken to the Nashville chief of police, mayor and senators in Tennessee. He pleaded with Congress to pass stronger gun safety laws, including a ban on assault weapons."The Congress has to act," Biden said. The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre, it's a crazy idea. They're against that."Video above: President Biden speaks on Nashville school shootingFounded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, The Covenant School is in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville that is home to the famous Bluebird Cafe, beloved by musicians and songwriters.The school has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members.Before Monday's violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass killings at K-12 schools since 2006 in which four or more people were killed within a 24-hour period, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters were males.The database does not include school shootings in which fewer than four people were killed, which have become far more common in recent years. Just last week alone, for example, school shootings happened in Denver and the Dallas area within two days of each other.At The Covenant School, officers began clearing the first story when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, Aaron said. Police later said the shooter fired at arriving officers from a second-story window.Police identified Engelbert, a four-year member of the force, and Collazo, a nine-year member, as the officers who fatally shot Hale.The surveillance video released Monday shows the shooter's car driving up to the school from multiple angles, including one in which children can be seen playing on swings in the background. Next, an interior view shows glass doors to the school being shot out and the shooter ducking through one of the shattered doors.More footage from inside shows the shooter walking through a school corridor holding a gun with a long barrel and walking into a room labeled "church office," then coming back out. In the final part of the footage, the shooter can be seen walking down another long corridor with the gun drawn. The shooter is not seen interacting with anyone else on the video, which has no sound.Aaron said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.___ Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

The person who killed three children and three adults at a Christian school in Nashville legally bought seven firearms in recent years and hid the guns from their parents before the attack, police said Tuesday.

The violence Monday at The Covenant School is the latest school shooting to roil the nation. Three 9-year-old students were killed, as well as the head of the grade school, a custodian and a substitute teacher.

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The suspect, Audrey Hale, 28, was a former student at the school. Police said the shooter did not target specific victims.

Authorities said Hale was not on their radar before the attack. Police say Hale was under a doctor's care for an undisclosed emotional disorder.

Police have released videos of the shooting, including edited surveillance footage that shows the shooter's car driving up to the school, glass doors being shot out and the shooter ducking through one of them.

Additional video, from Officer Rex Engelbert's bodycam, shows a woman greeting police outside as they arrive at The Covenant School on Monday. "The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don't know where they are," she tells police.

"OK, yes, ma'am," Engelbert replies.

The woman then directs officers to Fellowship Hall and says people inside had just heard gunshots. "Upstairs are a bunch of kids," she says.

Three officers, including Engelbert, search rooms one by one, holding rifles. "Metro Police," officers yell.

"Let's go, let's go," one officer yells.

As alarms are heard going off in the school, one officer says, "It sounds like it's upstairs."

Officers climb stairs to the second floor and enter a lobby area. "Move in," an officer yells. Then a barrage of gunfire is heard.

"Get your hands away from the gun," an officer yells twice. Then the shooter is shown motionless on the floor.

Police earlier said Hale had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the massacre, authorities said.

Police response times to school shootings have come under greater scrutiny after the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in which 70 minutes passed before law enforcement stormed the classroom. In Nashville, police have said 14 minutes passed from the initial call about a shooter in the school to when the suspect was killed, but they have not said how long it took them to arrive.

Surveillance video of The Covenant School grounds released by police shows a time stamp of just before 10:11 a.m., when the glass doors were shot out by the shooter. Police said they received a call about a shooter at 10:13 a.m. but have not said precisely what time they arrived, and the edited bodycam footage didn't include time stamps. A police spokesperson didn't immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking when they arrived or whether any version of the video includes time stamps.

Police have given unclear information on Hale's gender. For hours Monday, police identified the shooter as a woman. At a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said Hale was transgender. After the news conference, police spokesperson Don Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale identified.

In an email Tuesday, police spokesperson Kristin Mumford said Hale "was assigned female at birth. Hale did use male pronouns on a social media profile."

The victims were children Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all age 9. The adults were Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016. Peak was a substitute teacher, and Hill was a custodian, according to investigators.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake did not say exactly what drove Hale but said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the shooter had "some resentment for having to go to that school."

Drake provided chilling examples of the shooter's elaborate planning for the targeted attack, the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country that has grown increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.

"We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we're going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident," he told reporters. "We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place."

Authorities said Hale was armed with two "assault-style" weapons, as well as a handgun. At least two of them were believed to have been obtained legally in the Nashville area, according to the chief. Police said a search of Hale's home turned up a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other unspecified evidence.

President Joe Biden said he had spoken to the Nashville chief of police, mayor and senators in Tennessee. He pleaded with Congress to pass stronger gun safety laws, including a ban on assault weapons.

"The Congress has to act," Biden said. The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre, it's a crazy idea. They're against that."

Video above: President Biden speaks on Nashville school shooting

Founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, The Covenant School is in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville that is home to the famous Bluebird Cafe, beloved by musicians and songwriters.

The school has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members.

Before Monday's violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass killings at K-12 schools since 2006 in which four or more people were killed within a 24-hour period, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters were males.

The database does not include school shootings in which fewer than four people were killed, which have become far more common in recent years. Just last week alone, for example, school shootings happened in Denver and the Dallas area within two days of each other.

At The Covenant School, officers began clearing the first story when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, Aaron said. Police later said the shooter fired at arriving officers from a second-story window.

Police identified Engelbert, a four-year member of the force, and Collazo, a nine-year member, as the officers who fatally shot Hale.

The surveillance video released Monday shows the shooter's car driving up to the school from multiple angles, including one in which children can be seen playing on swings in the background. Next, an interior view shows glass doors to the school being shot out and the shooter ducking through one of the shattered doors.

More footage from inside shows the shooter walking through a school corridor holding a gun with a long barrel and walking into a room labeled "church office," then coming back out. In the final part of the footage, the shooter can be seen walking down another long corridor with the gun drawn. The shooter is not seen interacting with anyone else on the video, which has no sound.

Aaron said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.

___

Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed to this report.