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Nashville school shooting victims identified: Three 9-year-old students and three staffers among dead

The shooter, a 28-year-old woman who is a resident of Nashville, entered the school with at least two assault rifles and a handgun

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Nashville police have identified the six victims of the Covenant School shooting. The three students who were pronounced dead have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. All of them were just nine years old. Moreover, the three faculty members killed were identified as Cynthia Peak, Mike Hill, both 61, and the school's headmistress, 60-year-old Katherine Koonce.

The shooting happened on Monday morning, March 27, at The Covenant School, a private Presbyterian school in Nashville with about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade. All three children, Dieckhaus, Scruggs and Kinney had gunshot wounds, officials said, adding that they were pronounced dead upon arrival at the Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

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Three 9-year-old students died

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said that the shooter, a 28-year-old woman and resident of Nashville, had been fatally shot by officers after they entered the building. Police said the attacker had at least two assault rifles and a handgun. The attack took place in the "lobby-type area" of the school and not in a classroom. The motive behind the attack was not immediately clear although police said the shooter was believed to be a former student at the school.

Three faculty members dead, including headmistress

Authorities said the attacker entered the school through a side entrance and made her way from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots. It appeared that all the doors were locked, officials said.

Students could be seen being walked to safety after the incident, holding hands as they left their school surrounded by police cars. They were brought to a nearby church to be reunited with their parents.

President Joe Biden commented on the shooting during a speaking in White House which he refers to as sick and heartbreaking. "We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart ripping at the very soul of the nation and we have to do more to protect our schools so they aren’t turned into prisons," the president said.

"So many members of the military come back with post-traumatic stress after witnessing the violence and participating in it," Biden said. "Well, these children, these teachers we should be focusing on their mental health as well," he added.