Authorities have identified the three children and three adults who were shot to death at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday — a tragedy the city’s police chief said he hoped “never comes to this city.”
The student victims at The Covenant School were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney – two were 9 years old and one would have been 9. The three adults who died were substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61. 60-year-old principal Katherine Koonce and 61-year-old custodian Mike Hill.
“When we send children to school or to a safe place, we expect them to live, learn, have fun and come back from the experience of the day. We do not expect things like this,” said John Drake, chief of the Police Department Metropolitan Nashville, at his third press conference.
Authorities identified the shooter as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who was pronounced dead by officers at the scene. Police believe Hale is a former student at the school and say he had three weapons with him when he was killed: a shotgun, an assault rifle-style pistol and a handgun. Police think two of the three weapons were legally obtained in the Nashville area and they have “no history” of past criminal activity, Drake said.
John Bazemore/Associated Press
Police are investigating a “manifesto” found at Hale’s home that includes “a drawn-out map of how all of this is going to happen.” No motive has been confirmed, Drake said, but police have “a theory that we can talk about later.”
The authorities also plan to finally release a video showing how the five officers who responded to the scene killed Hale, who they believe gained access to the school by taking through the door to the building.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper, who also spoke at the latest press conference, denounced the frequency of gun violence.
“The leading cause of death for children today is guns and rifles, and that’s unacceptable,” Cooper said. After decades of car accidents being the biggest killer of children in the US, the New England Journal of Medicine published findings last year that firearm deaths are now the leading cause.
“Guns are fast; they don’t give you much time,” added Cooper. “So even with such a quick response, there wasn’t enough time. And those guns are stealing precious lives from us right now in Nashville.
Tennessee has some of the weakest state gun laws in the country and lacks many of the safeguards that gun reform advocates want, including universal background checks, waiting periods to buy firearms and assault weapons bans.