Heavily Armed Assailant Kills Six at Christian Schoolbin Nashville

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A heavily-armed former student killed three young children and three staff in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack at a private elementary school in Nashville on Monday, before being shot dead by police.

Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as Audrey Hale a 28-year-old female, who the officer later said identified as transgender.

According to the police chief he told reporters that Hale had maps of the school, left behind a manifesto, and was “prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement,”

Armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun, Hale entered the Christian Covenant School from a side entrance, allegedly shooting through a door — firing multiple shots while advancing through the building, according to police.

They said officers were on the scene within about 15 minutes of receiving the first emergency call around 10:00 am (1500 GMT), engaging the shooter who returned fire before being shot dead.

Police identified the six victims, saying one of the three children was eight years old and two were age nine, while the adults killed were age 60 to 61.

Television images showed young children holding hands as they filed out of the school, and one searing photograph showed a child sobbing through the window of her yellow school bus as it pulled away from the crime scene.

School shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, where the proliferation of firearms has soared in recent years.

President Joe Biden described the latest shooting as “sick” and said gun violence was tearing the nation’s “soul,” as he urged Congress to pass a ban on the assault weapons commonly used in mass shootings.

“It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation,” he said.

A Nashville fire department spokesperson, Kendra Loney, said all unharmed students were escorted out of the building with faculty and staff.

“But we are sure that they heard the chaos that was surrounding this, so we do have mental health specialists and professionals that are at that reunification site for both the students and the families.”