Police have found the “manifesto” and a map believed to belong to the 28-year-old woman who opened fire inside a private Christian elementary school in Tennessee, killing six people including young children.
Police located the manifesto and a map that pointed to the shooting being a targeted attack, according to Metro Nashville Police Department Chief John Drake.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date,” Mr Drake told reporters at a press conference.
“We have a map drawn out of how this was all gonna take place.”
The city’s police reported “an active shooter event” at The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday just after 10am local time.
Authorities said the shooting suspect, 28-year old Nashville woman Audrey Elizabeth Hale, died in an exchange with police on the scene after she shot dead at least six people.
Mr Drake said Hale identified as a “transgender woman”, though used he/him pronouns on some online profiles and also went by the name Aiden.
Hale, who had no prior criminal record, was a former student of the Christian school, according to police. Her motive is not yet known, though police said they had a theory, the details of which could be released.
The three students who were shot and killed were all nine years old, Metro Nashville Police Department confirmed. They have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.
Three adults were also killed in the shooting. They have been identified as 61-year-old Cynthia Peak, 60-year-old Katherine Koonce and 61-year-old Mike Hill.
Police said Hale once attended the school and an online profile listed her as working in Commercial Illustration and Graphic Design. She was shot dead by police on site at 10.27am, bringing the total death toll of the incident to seven.
Mr Drake confirmed police had spoken to Hale’s father. He said said cops will release a video of the incident shortly.
There was a “car nearby that gave us clues” into who she was, he added.
Mr Drake said officers arriving to the scene encountered “a female who was firing” after she reportedly entered the premises through a side entrance of the school, armed with “two AR-style rifles and a handgun”. At least two of the guns were obtained legally in the local area.
Two responding officers opened fire on the shooter and she was fatally shot, Mr Aaron said.
A hospital spokesperson confirmed that the three child victims were pronounced dead on arrival at the facility.
“(Three) paediatric patients were transported to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, all having suffered gunshot wounds,” John Howser, chief communications officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said in a statement.
“All three were pronounced dead after arrival.”
Officials said the victims had been identified and their families informed. Their ages have not yet been released.
Speaking at the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Summit, US President Joe Biden described the tragedy as every parents’ “worst nightmare”, and said that gun violence was “ripping at the soul of the nation”.
Mr Biden called on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, saying we “need to do more to protect our schools.”
“It’s about time we began to make some more progress,” he said.
First lady Jill Biden also reacted to the Nashville school shooting while at an event in Washington, DC.
“We just learned about another shooting in Tennessee. A school shooting. And I am truly without words. Our children deserve better. And we stand, all of us, we stand with Nashville in prayer,” she said.
Nashville Councilman Freddie O’Connell said in a statement: “Nashville has, sadly, today joined the communities that have experienced a school shooting. For now, my focus is turning to supporting the impacted families and revisiting our efforts to prevent these horrifying scenarios.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said he was closely monitoring the situation, adding that the state Highway Patrol and Department of Safety officers are assisting first responders.
“As we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community,” Mr Lee said.
The Covenant School, which teaches students in preschool through to sixth grade, has about 200 students enrolled, according to its website.
The incident is the 128th mass shooting in the US this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
Witness describes chaos following mass shooting
A woman working at an office building across the street from a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian school described seeing police cars speeding to the scene Monday morning.
Jozen Reodica told CNN she feared the worst after seeing cruisers pouring into the parking lot of the Covenant School, where a female shooter slaughtered three children and three adults before being shot down by cops.
“It all happened so fast,” she told the outlet, noting police quickly cordoned off streets in the area near the elementary school as word of the atrocity began to spread.
Reodica, who works at Shearwater Health directly across from the school, filmed frightened students being led out of their building by police.
She said they walked in a single-file line while holding hands.
White House calls for gun control change
The White House has blamed Republicans’ opposition to gun reform for the latest school shooting in Tennessee.
White House saying that the shooting could’ve been avoided if the GOP joined efforts to ban assault weapons.
“While we don’t know yet all of the details in this latest tragic shooting, we know that too often our schools and communities are being devastated by gun violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in her daily briefing. “Schools should be safe spaces for kids to grow and learn and for our educators to teach.
“How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress will step up and act to pass the assault weapons ban, to close loopholes in our background check system or to require the safe storage of guns,” she added. “We need to do something.”
Jean-Pierre added: “President Biden has taken more action than any president in history on gun safety — from nearly two dozen actions including the executive order he just signed… to the bipartisan safer communities act legislation he signed into law after the [shooting] tragedies in Uvalde and Buffalo.
Witness describes chaos following mass shooting at Nashville Christian school
“He also believes it’s not enough. We must do more. And he wants Congress to act because enough is enough.”
– With NY Post
