Three children and three staff members were gunned down at a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday before the shooter, a heavily armed 28-year-old woman, was killed by police, authorities said.
The shooting unfolded at The Covenant School on Burton Hills Boulevard where officers "engaged" the attacker, described by Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake as a woman who appears to be a former student at the school.
"At one point she was a student at that school, but unsure what year," he said.
The shooter was identified as Audrey Hale, a Nashville resident, three law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told NBC News.
The shooter was killed on the school's second floor, a police spokesperson said. She had two "assault-type rifles and a handgun," according to the official.
Students of the school, which serves preschool students through sixth graders, were being bused to Woodmont Baptist Church, two miles away, to be reunited with their parents.
Police said they first got calls about the shooter at 10:13 a.m. CT and Nashville firefighters first reported their personnel were responding to an “active aggressor” at 10:39 a.m. CT.
"The police department response was swift," police spokesperson Don Aaron told reporters.
"They heard shots coming from the second level. They immediately went to the gunfire. When the officers got to the second level, they saw a shooter, a female, who was firing. The officers engaged her. She was fatally shot by responding police officers."
Five police officers came upon the shooter and two opened fire on her, Aaron said. The shooter entered the school through a "side entrance" on the first floor, he added.
"By 10:27 the shooter was deceased," Aaron said.
It was not clear how the shooter gained access to the school.
"There was a door that was entered. All doors were locked, to our understanding, and how exactly she got in, at this point, is still under investigation," Drake said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna76841
