6 people were shot dead by a heavily armed former student yesterday (27 March) at a private elementary school in Nashville, including 3 young children, before the gunman was shot dead by the police, according to a report by Channel NewsAsia.
The chief of police, John Drake, identified the suspect as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a transgender former student of the school.
Drake said that Hale was prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement after the shooting, and had left behind a manifesto and maps of the school that detailed the surveillance and entry-exit points of the premises.
The police chief added that Hale was likely to have planned a broader attack, with his/her manifesto indicating that there were going to be shootings at multiple locations.
Hale had entered The Covenant School from the side entrance by shooting through a door, with at least 2 assault rifles and a handgun.
He had fired multiple shots while advancing through the school building.
The 6 victims who were killed, were identified by police as including 3 children aged 8, 9 and 9, and three adults aged between 60 and 61.
One of the deceased was the head of the school, Katherine Koonce.
Police officers had arrived at the scene within 15 minutes of receiving a call for help at about 10am, and exchanged fire with the gunman before the latter was shot dead.
Children were seen holding hands with each other as they left the school, and one child was seen crying through the window of her school bus as it drove away.
A family member of one of the pre-kindergarten teachers at the school, Avery Myrick, said that her mother had been hiding inside a closet as shots fired throughout the school; the gunman had tried to enter the room that she was in but failed and the teacher survived.
President Joe Biden has also responded to the latest of many shooting incidents in the US, calling it “sick,” and that it’s “ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation”.