A 28-year-old Shooter who allegedly shot through glass doors at a private Christian school – a memorial service for the Uvalde school shooting
The shooter who fired through glass doors to get to the school was caught on camera walking through the hallways with an assault-style weapon.
“This school, this church building was a target of the shooter, but we have no information at present to indicate that the shooter was specifically targeting any one of the six individuals who were murdered,” police spokesman Don Aaron said Tuesday.
As a heartbroken Nashville community grapples with the mass shooting that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults at a private Christian school, police are uncovering more details about the 28-year-old shooter.
The Uvalde attack, where 19 children and two instructors were murdered by a man armed with an AR15-style rifles, happened less than a year after the killings at the school.
The police chief said he was moved to tears to see how the kids were being ushered out of the building.
The students who died were nine years old. The three people were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. Three adults were killed in the shooting, including Cynthia Peak, Kathy Koonce and Mike Hill, police said.
A mother who lost her son in a mass shooting at a Nashville-area Waffle House said she was brought back to that painful moment when her other son was placed on lock down.
An Active Shooter at a Christian School in Nashville, Tenn. (Mike Hill), the Co-Chair of the Covenant School, as Viewed by CNN
The shooter was “someone that had multiple rounds of ammunition, prepared for confrontation with law enforcement, prepared to do more harm than was actually done,” the police chief said in a news conference.
Hale had legally purchased seven firearms that were hidden at home, according to Drake. Three of those weapons, including an AR-style rifle, were used in the attack Monday.
As they clear the rooms, officers hear gunfire from upstairs and rush up to the second floor, where Engelbert, armed with an assault-style rifle, fired multiple times at a person near a large window, who dropped to the ground, the video shows.
“I was hoping this day would never ever come here in the city. But we will never wait to make entry and to go in and to stop a threat especially when it deals with our children,” Drake said in a Monday news conference.
The school was ready for this with active shooter training. We don’t want to believe that this will ever happen to us. But experience has taught us that we need to be prepared because in this day and time it is the reality of where we are,” Nashville Metropolitan Councilman Russ Pulley told CNN.
On the school’s website, it is stated that Koonce was the head of the school and that she received her master’s degree from Georgia State University.
Mike Hill was identified in the staff section of the Covenant Presbyterian Church’s website, which is now offline. He was listed as facilities/kitchen staff. A friend of Mike Hill confirmed his image to CNN. Hill was a custodian at the school.
Covenant Presbyterian Church’s ministry of The Covenant School said their community is sad and thanked the first responders for their quick response.
The Covenant school is a private Christian school and was founded in 2001 as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, according to its website.
A Nashville School Shooting Victim’s Mom: The Story of an Anomalous Police Officer, Kim Lee, 23, and Evelyn Cooper
“It is important that we stand together on this dark day for Nashville,” he said in the tweet. The city has also set up a fund to help support the survivors of the shooting, Cooper said.
Homicide is an leading cause of death for children in the United States and has increased an average of 4.3% per year for nearly a decade according to a recent study published in the journal JAMAPediatrics.
Biden said Congress needs to pass an assault weapons ban because they need to protect schools. However, a bipartisan solution is extremely unlikely this Congress with a slim Democratic majority in the Senate and a GOP-led House.
Evelyn was 9, police said. According to a statement released by the family, they appreciate all that has been said, but they are asking for space as they grieve.
The staff member loved to cook and spend time with his family according to a family statement obtained by CNN. He had 14 children.
“I have watched school shootings happen over the years and never thought I would lose a loved one over a person trying to solve a temporary problem with a permanent solution,” she said. She apologized for the loss of the children.
They said that the educators sense of humor was great. Kim Lee said that Koonce made each person feel important.
“She could be on her knees talking to a preschool student, than she could turn around and be talking to a board member and then turn around and meet with an angry parent and then turn around and meet with the teacher that is having a bad day,” he added.
Evangelical Pastor Lee: The Power of Christ to Give Hope in the Presence of Disaster, and the Resurrection for Those Who Have Lost
There is a time to discuss the budget and legislation we brought forward this year. And clearly, there’s more work to do,” he said Tuesday night.
“There is hope in the midst of great tragedy because God is a redeemer. It is possible for evil to be turned into good. May we grieve in the days ahead, but not without hope. May we also act with wisdom, discernment, and grace. And may we love, especially those who have lost,” Lee said in his video message.
He said Tuesday in a Facebook post that Cindy was with him for all of his childhood. “She and Mae Ann had birthdays one day apart and her family lived across the street from us for a period of time. Cindy and Mae were always together.”
“We love the Scruggs family and mourn with them over their precious daughter Hallie,” the Texas congregation’s Senior Pastor Mark Davis said. We depend on the power of Christ to give us comfort and hope, even though we are desperately in need of it.
Colliding with an Active Shooter: Engelbert and Collazo Revealed by Body-Caught Cameras in a Nashville School on Monday
Body camera footage shows the fatal confrontation between police and an armed suspect who attacked a school in Nashville on Monday.
Six people — including three children — were killed in the shooting, and the suspected attacker was killed by police within minutes of the first call of an active shooter.
The massacre drew messages of sympathy from politicians, including President Biden and others across the U.S., and it reignited calls for Congress to do more to prevent school shootings.
Hale was stated to be a female shooter at the evening news conference. When asked to clarify Hale used male pronouns on his social media profile.
The footage, from the body-worn cameras of officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo, begins with Engelbert arriving at the school to find a woman outside who says the school is on lockdown but there are two children unaccounted for.
She told him the kids were locked down, but they didn’t know where they were. She says that the children are upstairs in the school.
After the officer is given a key to open a door into the building, a group of five officers enter the school amid wailing fire alarms and immediately go into several empty classrooms rooms to look for the suspect.
The gunshots grow louder, and Engelbert enters an atrium and encounters the shooter standing near a window. The shooter fell to the ground after being hit by four bullets.
Engelbert is a four-year veteran of the force, and Collazo is a nine-year veteran. The first call about a person being shot came in at 10:46 a.m.
Drake said the two officers tried to make sense of what happened after the shooting. Drake said he had also spoken with Biden, who told him he intended to reach out to the officers too.
Drake said the shooter legally purchased seven firearms from five local gun dealers. Three of those weapons were used in Monday’s attack.
The Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and the Suicide Prevention Line contacted by the Nashville Shooter, Dane Averianna, a close family friend
The Tennessee governor lost a close family friend, but he said some parents woke up without children and others without parents and teachers.
Averianna told CNN that the shooter sent a message to her just before 10 a.m. Monday, saying he was going to kill himself.
Patton, a Nashville radio host, told CNN she was the shooter’s childhood basketball teammate but they hadn’t spoken in years and is unsure why she received the message. The Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and the suicide prevention line were contacted by the woman.
The attack was planned and plotted, according to writing left behind by Hale. The shooter had a drawing of how to enter the building and “assaults that would take place,” Drake said at a Tuesday news conference.
The president of the school that Hale graduated from last year confirmed the news to CNN. Hale worked as a graphic designer and part-time grocery shopper.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/us/covenant-school-shooting-nashville-tennessee-wednesday/index.html
Collazo, Lee and the Los Angeles Police Department. The victims of a mass shooting, Lee’s statement, and a memorial for the victims
Collazo then appeared to shoot the person on the ground four times with a handgun, yelling “Stop moving!” The officers then approach the person, move a gun away and radio “Suspect down! Suspect down!”
Asked about the roughly 11-minute gap between when police received the first call of an active shooter and when officers arrived at the school, the police chief told reporters, “From what I’ve seen, I don’t have a particular problem with it. We are always looking to get better. There’s a lot of things that could have happened if we had gotten there in a few minutes.
A friend of Koonce went to the center after the shooting and was suspicious when she didn’t see him there.
“Knowing her, she’s so kind and strong and such a voice of reason and just security for people that she would have been there in front handling everything, so I had a feeling,” Goff said.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said that Maria woke up this morning without one of her friends, Cindy Peak, who had been supposed to come over to have dinner with her.
“Maria woke up this morning without one of her best friends, Cindy Peak,” the governor said.”Cindy and Maria and Katherine Koonce were all teachers at the same school and have been family friends for decades,” he added.
Some families of the victims have released statements as they mourn their loves ones. Hill was described as a father of seven children and grandfather to 14 who loved to cook and spend time with his family, his family said in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WSMV.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper says that the city of Nashville is holding a memorial for the victims of the mass shooting. The park is located at One Public Square.
An unarmed man shoots himself: a police officer confronts a suspect in the hallway of a high-school shooting, and they tell them to stop their radio traffic
In the wake of another mass shooting, the videos of the police racing down hallways and confronting the suspect have horrified a nation once again.
Standing in front of a side entrance to the school, Hale fired off shots that shattered the glass door, surveillance video shows. Hale can be seen ducking through the broken door while carrying three weapons.
Custodian Mike Hill was shot through that door, police said. The 61-year-old, known to the school’s students as “Big Mike,” was among the first killed.
Then, the sound of gunfire rattles the hallway. An officer states in the video that it sounds like it is upstairs. As police run up the stairwell towards the heavy booms, it grows louder.
“Suspect down!” Collazo screamed twice into his radio. Then, after a labored breath, he sent an order to “Hold the air” – a request to stop all unnecessary radio traffic so his team can communicate across clear airwaves.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/us/nashville-tennessee-school-shooting-what-happened/index.html
Koonce, a dedicated teacher, leader, and dear friend died at the Rainbow Center in Nashville, Fla., in June 1997, the death of a dear friend and colleague
In the aftermath, community members paid their respects to the lives lost, placing bouquets, toys, balloons and a flower-wreathed cross at a makeshift memorial just outside the school.
A statement on the school’s website said that Koonce had been a faculty member for 16 years, and that she was survived by her husband and two children.
The faculty, staff and students who worked with her mourn the death of a dedicated teacher, leader, and dear friend.
Koonce’s friend and former colleague Jim Lee told CNN he and his wife flew to Nashville after learning she had been killed. They described a live and witty character, deeply connected to her students and staff, but also a fierce administrator.
Lee said she was a person of grace, but she had this amazing confidence. “She was an educator, but she also had great pastoral and counseling and nurturing skills – or she had those CEO skills that could tell you that you need to kind of get in your place.”