Former Student Who Killed 6 In US School Shooting Had Maps And Manifesto: Cops

A heavily armed former student killed three children and three adults in a shooting at a private Christian grade school in Nashville on Monday before being shot dead by police.

AFP

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

Hale left behind a manifesto, had maps of the school detailing surveillance and entry-exit points, and was "prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement," the police chief told reporters following the latest outburst of gun violence to stun the United States.

In an interview with NBC News, he said the suspect was likely plotting a broader attack, as the manifesto "indicates that there was going to be shootings at multiple locations, and the school was one of them."

Six victims identified

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

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

One of the victims, Katherine Koonce, is listed as head of the school on the academy's website.

There was confusion surrounding the suspect's gender identity, with officials using "she" and "her" to refer to them, while a LinkedIn profile appeared to identify Hale as a man.

AFP

Police 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.

Television images showed children holding hands as they left 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.

AP

Biden seeks ban on assault weapons

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 often used in mass shootings.

"It's ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation," he said.

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

129 mass shootings in US this year

The Covenant School is a private Presbyterian institution with just over 200 students in preschool to roughly age 12.

Drake said investigators were working on a possible motive but said it was "not confirmed."

Asked whether Hale's gender identity may have been a factor, Drake said: "There is some theory to that, we're investigating all the leads."

He also told NBC that investigators had learned Hale might have had "some resentment to having to go to that school -- I don't have all the details of that just yet -- and that's why this incident occurred."

There have been 129 mass shootings -- defined as incidents in which four or more people were shot or killed -- so far this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.

AP

Biden's calls for Congress to reinstate the national ban on assault rifles, which existed from 1994 to 2004, has run up against opposition from Republicans, who are staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms and have had a narrow majority in the House of Representatives since January.

(With inputs from AFP)

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