Police release footage of Nashville shooter entering school before deadly rampage
Six people were shot dead at the private Christian school.
Trigger warning: Contains footage from school shooting
Police in Nashville have released chilling footage of the moment a shooter entered a school before going on to shoot and kill six people, including three nine-year-old children.
The shooter, who has since been shot and killed by police, walked into a private Christian elementary school on Monday morning with two assault-style weapons and a handgun. Here is that moment:
The three student victims have been named as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.
The adult victims were named as Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher; Mike Hill, 61 a custodian; and Katherine Koonce, 60, who was the school's head teacher.
The suspect drove to the school in a Honda Fit at around 10am on Monday morning (27 March), police have stated, before shooting at two sets of glass doors and shattering them to pieces.
They can then be seen walking into the school building in camouflage trousers, a red baseball cap, and a black vest before heading down hallways and searching through rooms.
Although the video released by Nashville police is muted, a fire alarm can be seen flashing in the background of the footage.
Nashville police have confirmed that the shooter had previously attended the school as a child, and harboured 'some resentment' towards it.
Police have named the shooter as 28-year-old Audrey E Hale.
When news of the shooting was first reported, there was some confusion about the gender of the shooter.
While officials referred to Hale as 'she' and 'her', the shooter's previous social media posts would suggest that they were transgender and had identified as male in recent months.
Police chief John Drake later confirmed that they had obtained Hale's manifesto, which included detailed maps of the school and will likely give investigators a clear motive.
"We have a manifesto. We have some writings that we're going over that pertain to this day, the actual incident. We have a map drawn out about how this was all going to take place," he told reporters.
Vigils are underway among Nashville residents, who have been leaving tributes for the victims at the school grounds.
Commenting on the attack, President Joe Biden described the incident as 'sick' and 'heartbreaking', and called on the Senate to pass the assault weapons ban.
This devastating incident marks the 89th US school shooting in 2023.
If you’ve been affected by the contents of this article you can contact the SAMHSA Disaster Distress Hotline on 800-985-5990 or 800-846-8517 if you’re hearing impaired. Or you can text ‘TalkWithUs’ to 66746. The hotline provides 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors for people experiencing emotional distress related to natural or human-caused disasters. The helpline Is toll-free, multilingual and confidential and available to all residents in the US and its territories.
Featured Image Credit: Metropolitan Nashville Police
Ali Condon