Kelsea Ballerini recalls witnessing classmate's death in school shooting amid emotional CMT Awards speech
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE: At the 2023 CMT Awards on April 2, Kelsea Ballerini paid tribute to the victims of the Nashville massacre by recalling the time she witnessed her classmate being killed in a high school shooting. On Monday morning, March 27, Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire at a Christian elementary school in Tennessee, killing six people, including three nine-year-old children.
Police shot and killed the shooter in the Nashville shooting event on a higher floor of the school. The shooter was from a religious home and his mother had supported stricter restrictions on guns, reports the Daily Mail.
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'Create change for the safety of our kids'
When addressing the tragic 2008 death of her classmate Ryan McDonald, 15, in a school cafeteria, CMT host Ballerini fought back tears as she begged for a stop to gun violence in the wake of the Nashville shooting incident. Ballerini exclaimed, "On March 27, 2023, three 9-year-olds - Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs - along with Dr. Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, and Mike Hill, walked into the Covenant School and didn't walk out."
She went on to say, "The community of sorrow over this and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone stretches from coast to coast. I wanted to personally stand up here and share this moment, because on August 21, 2008, I watched Ryan McDonald, my 15-year-old classmate at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria."
"Tonight's broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of family's friends, survivors, witnesses, and responders whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence. I pray deeply that the closeness and the community that we feel through the next few hours of music can soon turn into action — like, action that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and our loved ones," added the CMT host.
What happened at Central High School in 2008?
On the morning of August 21, 2008, Jamar shot Ryan McDonald, a sophomore who resided with his grandmother and had alopecia, an ailment that left him bald and made him the object of constant bullying as a child. When Ryan was shot in the chest by another student, 15-year-old Jamar Siler, Ballerini was a sophomore at Knoxville, Tennessee's Central High School.
Associated Press reported that Jamar Siler was being held in a juvenile detention facility and was convicted of one count of first-degree murder, per a police spokesman. It was unknown why Jamar shot Ryan, however, some stories claimed the two had argued on the bus earlier that day. Jamar's defense lawyer asserted that he had fetal alcohol syndrome. When he collapsed, witnesses claimed Ryan was "walking and holding his chest," and there was "blood everywhere."
What happened at Covenant school on March 27?
On March 27, six people lost their lives in a school shooting. The horrific act of violence that turned the energetic day at Covenant School into an everlasting nightmare has left the entire city in mourning for the victims. Audre Hale, a transgender male of 28 years old, is the perpetrator.
Officials did not immediately provide an explanation for the killings, but Nashville Police Chief John Drake stated in an interview with NBC News that detectives thought Hale may have retained "some resentment for having to go to that school" as a young child.
Hale had no prior criminal record before the shooting, but it is believed that he carefully planned his attack, as shown by a "manifesto" that FBI investigators obtained, which stated that the killer intended to carry out shootings at many locations.
