Just hours after a shooter gunned down three children and three adults at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, local police released security footage of the deadly attack. The female shooter “identifies as transgender,” police said.
According to the footage, shared on Twitter by the Metro Nashville Police Department, the 28-year-old attacker shot her way into The Covenant School at 10:10 a.m.
“Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church/School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building. She was armed with 2 assault-type guns and a 9 millimeter pistol,” the department wrote.
According to local NBC affiliate WSMV, someone called 911 about shots fired in the school at 10:13 a.m. Officers immediately responded and started clearing the building as shots rang out on the second floor of the school.
A team of officers encountered the female shooter on the second floor, and two officers shot and killed the transgender shooter at 10:27 a.m. The officers who ran toward the gunfire and took down the shooter are Michael Collazo and Rex Englebert.
The department also revealed that the shooter “fired on arriving police vehicles from a 2nd story window” as police responded to the shooting.
The MNPD also released the names of the victims: Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, Mike Hill, 61, and 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney.
“Our community is heartbroken. We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing,” the school said in a statement after the shooting. “Law enforcement is conducting its investigation, and while we understand there is a lot of interest and there will be a lot of discussion about and speculation surrounding what happened, we will continue to prioritize the well-being of our community.”
“We appreciate the outpouring of support we have received, and we are tremendously grateful to the first responders who acted quickly to protect our students, faculty and staff,” the statement continued. “We ask for privacy as our community grapples with this terrible tragedy — for our students, parents, faculty and staff.”
