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Nashville school shooting was apparently a targeted attack, police say
Officials said a shooter opened fire at a private Christian grade school in Nashville on Monday, killing three children and three adults.
According to authorities, the shooter was fatally shot by police at The Covenant School in the city's affluent Green Hills neighborhood.
According to Nashville Police Chief John Drake, the preliminary investigation indicates that the shooting was premeditated.
However, authorities clarified on Tuesday that the ongoing investigation has found no evidence that any of the victims were targeted individually.
A possible motive has yet to be determined by police.
"We have no evidence that individuals were specifically targeted," said Don Aaron, the Nashville Police Department's director of media relations.
"This school, this church building, was a target of the shooter, but we have no evidence that the shooter was specifically targeting any of the six people who were murdered."
Drake later stated that police "believe that these students who were targeted were randomly targeted."
"We have a manifesto, and we're going over some writings that pertain to this date, the actual incident," Drake told reporters on Monday. "We had a plan in place for how this was all going to play out."
The investigation also revealed that the shooter was a student at the school, though Drake did not specify when.
"What detectives have said so far is that there may be some resentment for having to go to that school," he said on Tuesday's "CBS Mornings."
According to the police chief, the manifesto included "several different writings about other locations" in addition to the school, as well as "a drawing of how potentially" the shooter "would enter and the assaults that would take place."
"There's quite a bit of writing to it," Drake said. "I haven't finished reading the manifesto. Our team has been working with the FBI on this."
Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years old, were among the victims, as were 61-year-old Cynthia Peak, 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, and 61-year-old Mike Hill. The adults were all employed at the school.
Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old Nashville woman, was identified as the shooter and was armed with at least two assault-style weapons and a handgun, according to police. Authorities released body camera footage of police officers responding to the shooting and apprehending the assailant on Tuesday.
Drake described the weapons used in the shooting as two "AR-style weapons" — a rifle and a pistol — as well as another handgun.
He stated on Tuesday that the shooter legally purchased seven firearms from five different gun stores, three of which were used in the shooting.
The shooter's parents were aware that the shooter owned one weapon but believed that the shooter had sold it and did not own any others, according to Drake.
The shooter entered Covenant School through a side door and moved from the first to the second floor, "firing multiple shots."
According to Don Aaron, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, officers entered the first story of the school building and began clearing it when they heard gunfire on the second level.
According to a statement released late Monday night, the officers moved upstairs and saw the shooter firing at arriving police cars.
At that point, Aaron said, they "engaged" the shooter, who was fatally shot by two of the five responding police officers.
"That's incredible, even for our remarkable group, and I believe it saved many lives," Cooper told CBS News.
He claimed the shooter took a "tactical position," and police body camera footage showed officers "rushing into the gunfire." He stated that the scene would have been "clearly" worse if police had not arrived quickly.
In the aftermath of the shooting, officials established a reunification center nearby, where students from the school were transported.
"We expect our children to live, learn, have fun, and return from their day's experience when we send them to school or any other safe place.
Things like this do not occur to us "Drake stated.
According to Drake, police now believe the shooter had other targets in mind, including a local mall.
"We strongly believe there were going to be some other targets, including possibly family members and one of Nashville's malls," Drake said. "And that simply did not occur."
A search of the shooter's home turned up two more weapons, as well as "some more maps about maybe some thinking about some other incidents," according to Drake.
On Monday afternoon, President Biden addressed the shooting in televised remarks.
"It's sick," he admitted. "It breaks my heart. The worst nightmare of a family."
"We need to do more to prevent gun violence," he said. "It's tearing our communities apart and tearing at the very soul of our country."
According to the White House, President Barack Obama spoke with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Mayor Cooper on Monday and ordered that flags at the White House and other federal properties be flown at half-staff until Friday in honor of the victims.
Jill Biden went on, "Our children deserve better." "We stand, all of us, in prayer with Nashville."
Covenant is a private Christian school in Nashville that serves children from preschool to sixth grade, according to CBS affiliate WTVF. According to the station, the school held an active shooter training program last year.
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