Update: Police release surveillance video of the person who shot and killed 3 children and 3 adults at Nashville school. Latest updates here. Our original story continues below.
A deadly shooting unfolded in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday, leaving at least three children and three adults dead in addition to the shooter.
The violence at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school for about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, marks the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.
Details continue to unfold amid an investigation into what happened, how and why.
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Here's what we know so far:
When did the shooting happen and where?
The Nashville Fire Department said the incident happened at Covenant School, located at 33 Burton Hills Blvd.
The tragedy unfolded over roughly 14 minutes. Police received the initial call about an active shooter at 10:13 a.m.
The shooter was killed by police before 10:30 a.m., police said.
Covenant School is a private Christian school with pre-school through sixth-grade students. The school is located in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville.
Who were the victims?
At least three children and three adults were killed in the shooting.
A spokesman for Vanderbilt University Medical Center confirmed that three pediatric patients were taken to their facility, all having suffered gunshot wounds. All three were pronounced dead after arrival, according to hospital spokesman John Howser.
The victims were identified just before 4 p.m., with ages ranging between 9 and 61 years old.
"The 6 victims fatally shot by the active shooter at Covenant School are identified as: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9, Cynthia Peak, age 61, Katherine Koonce, age 60, and Mike Hill, age 61," the Metro Nashville Police Department tweeted.
What do we know about the shooter?
The shooter was identified as a 28-year-old Nashville resident named Audrey Hale, according to NBC News. The shooter, who was a former student of the school, was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun, according to the Nashville Police Chief John Drake.
Was there a motive?
A motive was not immediately clear.
Drake said police were in possession of a manifesto and a map of how the shooter intended the attack to unfold. He said another location was mentioned in the writings, but was not targeted in the end because of a high level of security.
The shooter identified as transgender, the chief of police said, and officers are investigating if that played a role in the motivation for the attack.
How did the shooting unfold?
Officers began clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news briefing.
Two officers from a five-member team opened fire in response, fatally shooting the suspect at 10:27 a.m., Aaron said. He said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.
The shooter was killed by police on the second floor of the school building at The Covenant School within 15 minutes of the first 911 call reporting that she had opened fire. She entered the school through a side door on the first floor, police said, and she has not yet been identified.
What else do we know?
The killings come as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year; a first grader who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators.
Nashville has seen its share of mass violence in recent years.
On Christmas Day 2020, a recreational vehicle was intentionally detonated in the heart of Music City’s historic downtown, killing the bomber, injuring three others and forcing more than 60 businesses to close.
A man shot and killed four people at a Nashville Waffle House in April 2018. He was sentenced in February 2022 to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In September 2017, a masked gunman opened fire at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, walking silently down the aisle as he shot unsuspecting congregants. One person was killed and seven others were wounded. The gunman was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
