Nashville school shooting victims are identified as three students aged nine, head of school, 60, whose daughter also worked there, as well as man and woman, both 61
- Three nine year old children – Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney – were shot and killed in their Nashville school on Monday
- Three adults – Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, both 61, and school head Katherine Koonce, 60 – were also killed
- A local woman, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who had attended the school, has been named as the attacker: she was shot dead by police within 15 minutes of arriving
Katherine Koonce, head of school, was among those shot dead by Audrey Hale
The three children and three staff members shot and killed by a transgender female attacker at a Nashville school have been named by police, who confirmed that the assailant previously attended the Christian school.
The nine-year-old victims were named as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney.
Three adults also died: Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, both 61, and school head Katherine Koonce, 60.
The attacker has been named as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a white transgender woman.
She had been a pupil at The Covenant School, a private Christian establishment.
A police officer walks by an entrance to The Covenant School after a shooting in Nashville
A terrified child presses her hand against the glass of a school bus window after being evacuated from The Covenant School
‘At one point she was a student at that school,’ said John Drake, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief.
‘But unsure what year … but that’s what I’ve been told so far.’
Drake confirmed Hale was transgender.
He said she was identified by the car she had left at the school.
‘There was a vehicle that was nearby that gave us clues as to who she was,’ Drake said.
Hale had detailed, hand drawn maps of the school, and had been surveilling it, according to police.
The small school is run by a church and does not employ a school resource officer.
Shortly before 10:13am, Hale entered the school through a side door and began opening fire on the second floor.
It’s unclear how she gained access to the building. Police say all of the doors were locked.
Police arrived at the scene and heard the gunshots coming from the 2nd floor.
By 10:27am, she had been shot dead.
She was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
Children hold hands as they leave The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday after a female shooter opened fire, killing three kids and three staff members
Children from The Covenant School run past an ambulance on Monday after a female shooter opened fire, killing three staff members and three students, before being shot by police
A father carries his son out of The Covenant School in Nashville after a shooter killed three students and two staff members before being shot dead
Terrified children peer out the windows of their school bus as they wait to be driven away from the school after the shooting
