Nashville police respond to a shooting at Covenant School and Covenant Presbyterian Church on March 27, 2023. | Metro Nashville Police Department/AP
A shooting on Monday has left at least three students and three adults dead.
At least three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school, in Nashville on Monday, according to WSMV4 News. The suspect is also dead, per Nashville police.
The shooter was female and “appear[ed] to be in her teens,” according to Nashville police, who said she was armed with two “assault-type” rifles and a handgun. Officers are still working to identify the shooter, whom police shot after confronting her on the second floor of the school.
“Including the shooter, a total of seven persons were killed as a result of this morning’s incident at the school,” Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron told reporters during a press conference.
An active shooter event has taken place at Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church, on Burton Hills Dr. The shooter was engaged by MNPD and is dead. Student reunification with parents is at Woodmont Baptist Church, 2100 Woodmont Blvd. pic.twitter.com/vO8p9cj3vx
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) March 27, 2023
On Monday morning, Nashville police and fire departments responded to an “active aggressor” at the school, which serves roughly 200 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Police said they began receiving calls at 10:13 am local time and arrived on the scene shortly afterward. It’s not yet clear how many people were potentially injured at this time or what the shooter’s motive was.
Students are being bused away from the school to another location for reunification with parents at Woodmont Baptist Church at 2100 Woodmont Boulevard.
There have been more than 100 mass shootings in 2023 so far, a disturbing milestone that highlights America’s unique problem with guns. School shootings also rose to an unprecedented high between 2020 and 2021. The Covenant School shooting follows other horrific instances at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022 and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
This is a developing story, which we’ll be updating as more information becomes available.