3 children and 3 adults killed in shooting at Tennessee elementary school

Nashville, Tenn.WSMV/Grey News ) – Three children attending a private Christian school in grades K through sixth were killed Monday in a shooting in Nashville, along with three adults. The suspect is also dead, police said.

Metro Nashville Police are investigating the shooting at Covenant Presbyterian School. Police announced the death toll at a news conference and said the suspect, a 28-year-old woman identified as Audrey Hale, was killed when officers engaged her in a lobby area inside the church-affiliated school.

Hale was killed by police just before 10:27 a.m. Authorities said he entered the school through a side entrance and was armed with two assault rifles and a handgun.

Police said Hale was a former student at the school.

According to authorities, all three children had gunshot wounds. The Associated Press reported that the students were pronounced dead on arrival at Carell Children’s Hospital in Monroe.

The three 9-year-old victims were identified by authorities as Evelyn Dickhouse, Holly Scruggs and William Kinney. The three older victims were 61-year-old Cynthia Peake, 60-year-old Catherine Koons, and 61-year-old Mike Hill.

Officials said there were no other shooting victims. According to a police spokesman, one officer was injured by broken glass.

Students walked to safety Monday as they left the school surrounded by police cars, holding hands. According to the Associated Press, they went to a nearby church to be reunited with their parents.

Covenant School is located at 33 Burton Hills Boulevard, and Hillsborough Pike from Harding Place to Hobbs Road is closed for police at the scene.

According to the school’s website, in recent years the school has had about 200 students, has 33 teachers, and was founded as a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in 2001.

The killings come as communities across the country are reeling from school violence, including school violence massacre at Uvalde Elementary School, Texas, last year; the first grade student who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in denver which injured two administrators.

Copyright 2023 WSMV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.