Body cam footage shows police killing Nashville school shooter

Video released Tuesday showed Nashville police officers storming a private Christian school on Monday before confronting and fatally shooting an attacker who killed three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members.

Six minutes of harrowing footage, edited together from two responding body cameras and released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, shows police clearing several classrooms on the first floor before going up to the second floor when shots rang out.

Officers ran down the hallway — past what appeared to be a victim lying on the ground — and into the lounge area, where the suspect was seen lying on the floor after being shot.

Officer Rex Engelbert and Officer Michael Collazo, whose body camera provided the footage, both shot the suspect. The video shows the attacker still moving on the ground as officers repeatedly yell, “Get your hands off the gun!”

Nashville police began receiving calls about the shooter at 10:13 a.m., police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters. The suspect was pronounced dead at 10:27 am

“The police department’s response was very quick,” Aaron said.

WATCH | Footage shows the moments before police killed the shooter:

Police Chief John Drake said at a news briefing Tuesday that Hale had legally purchased seven weapons from five different stores, including two assault weapons and the handgun used in Monday’s attack.

Hale has been receiving treatment from a doctor for an “emotional disorder,” according to Hale’s parents.

Hale’s parents didn’t feel Hale should have a gun, Drake said. Hale sold one of the guns, and his parents did not know that Hale had another weapon, said Drake.

Body camera footage shows officers quickly searching for the shooter, in contrast to video that shows officers in Uvalde, Texas, waiting inside Robb Elementary School for more than an hour last May as a gunman inside a classroom continued an attack that claimed the lives of 19 children and adults. two.

In 2018, some officers who responded to a school shooting in Parkland, Fla., stayed outside the building instead of directly pursuing the suspect, according to a state commission investigation. Seventeen students and staff members were killed in the attack.

Both incidents have prompted renewed scrutiny of police protocol for active shooters, which calls for officers to engage suspects quickly to save their lives.

The violence marked the 90th school shooting – defined as any incident in which a gun is fired on school property – in the United States this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman. Last year, there were 303 such incidents, the highest in the database since 1970.

A motive has not been offered by police

Police have identified the attacker as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a 28-year-old former student at Covenant School. Investigators ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​are looking into what they call a “manifesto” left behind by Hale, hoping to learn about the latest motivations in several U.S. mass shootings. The type of shooter is unclear.

“In Nashville, this is the worst day, but it could have been worse without this good response. We are very grateful,” said Nashville Mayor John Cooper, Tuesday in an interview on CNN, stating that the attack was “clearly planned.” by the attacker, based on the manifest authority found.

Authorities did not immediately provide a motive for the killing.

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Among the various pieces of evidence examined by police and FBI agents conducting the investigation were several writings from the attackers, including a manifesto and a detailed hand-drawn map of the school showing various entry points, Drake said.

Hale was armed with two assault-style weapons, one rifle, as well as a 9-mm handgun. The attacker gained entry to the school by shooting through a side door window, authorities said.

Drake told NBC the manifesto shows that Hale plans to do additional shooting in other locations. He said the Covenant School was singled out for attack but that individual victims were targeted at random.

Investigators believe Hale harbored “some anger at having to go to that school” as a child, he said without elaborating.

‘The time is now’

The three schoolgirls killed, all 9 years old, have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. Also shot dead were Mike Hill, 61, a school guard; Cynthia Peak, 61, substitute teacher; and Katherine Koonce, 60, principal.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre noted on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden has taken several gun-related actions under executive orders, but lawmakers need to do more to enact comprehensive gun safety legislation. including a new ban on assault weapons.

“We need Republicans in Congress to show courage,” he told MSNBC in an interview. “Enough, enough, enough.”

Hours after the shooting, Biden called on lawmakers to pass tougher gun reform legislation.

“They have to act. The time is now,” Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

Surveillance camera video posted online by police showed the suspect, wearing camouflage pants and a black vest over a white shirt with a red baseball cap on the back, blasting through the glass of an exterior door after driving into the building in a car. . The footage then shows the attacker walking through the hallway as alarm lights flash.

Covenant School, founded in 2001, is a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Green Hills neighborhood of Tennessee’s state capital, with about 200 students, according to the school’s website. The school offers preschool through sixth grade and is hosting an active shooter training program by 2022, local television station WTVF-TV reported.