Body-worn camera footage released Tuesday shows police entering The Covenant School in Nashville before coming face-to-face with the mass shooter who killed three children and three adults.
The heavily armed shooter was shot and killed by officers Monday.
The video shows the officers clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, as previously described by police spokesperson Don Aaron during a Tuesday briefing.
Two officers from a five-member team opened fire after being engaged by the shooter, fatally shooting the suspect at 10:27 a.m., Aaron said. That was less than 15 minutes from when the first 911 call was placed.
Surveillance video also released by police showed the attacker shooting out doors to the school to gain entry.
There were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.
The shooter, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, was previously a student of the private Christian school. Investigators are still searching for a motive for the shooting.
A manifesto that included detailed plans for the attack has been found, Police Chief John Drake told reporters Monday afternoon.
Covenant School is a private Christian school with about 250 pre-school through sixth-grade students. The school is located in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville.
The three children killed were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. They were all nine years old.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
The three adults killed were Cynthia Peak, age 61, Katherine Koonce, age 60, and Mike Hill, age 61.
The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016. Peak was a substitute teacher and Hill was a custodian, according to investigators.
The attack at The Covenant School — which has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members — comes as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year; a first grader who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators.
A reeling Nashville mourned during multiple vigils Monday evening. At Belmont United Methodist Church, teary sniffling filled the background as vigil attendees sang, knelt in prayer and lit candles. They lamented the national cycle of violent and deadly shootings, at one point reciting together, “we confess we have not done enough to protect” the children injured or killed in shootings.
“We need to step back. We need to breathe. We need to grieve,” said Paul Purdue, the church’s senior pastor. “We need to remember. We need to make space for others who are grieving. We need to hear the cries of our neighbors.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
