People gather at a makeshift memorial for victims outside the Covenant School building at the Covenant Presbyterian Church following a shooting, in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27, 2023. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
As the United States debates the dangers of short video app TikTok for children, another school shooting has left six people dead, including three children.
A heavily armed former student killed three children and three staff at a Nashville school on Monday in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack before being shot dead by police.
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AFP reported that Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who the officer later said identified as transgender.
“Hale left behind a manifesto, had maps of the school detailing surveillance and entry-exit points, and was “prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement,” Drake told reporters.
According to police, Hales was armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun.
He entered The Covenant School, a Christian academy, from a side entrance, allegedly shooting through a door — firing multiple shots while advancing through the building.
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Police identified the six victims, saying one of the three children was eight years old and two were aged nine, while the adults killed were aged 60 to 61.
One of the victims, Katherine Koonce, is listed as head of the school on the academy’s website.
Police said officers were on the scene within 15 minutes of receiving the first emergency call around 10 am (1500 GMT), engaging the shooter, who returned fire before being shot dead.
Television images showed children holding hands as they left the school. One photograph showed a child sobbing through the window of her yellow school bus as it pulled away from the crime scene.
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US President Joe Biden described the latest shooting as “sick” and said gun violence was “ripping the soul of this nation.” He has since urged Congress to pass a ban on the assault weapons often used in mass shootings.
Biden‘s calls for Congress to reinstate the national ban on assault rifles, which existed from 1994 to 2004, has run up opposition from Republicans, who are staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms and have had a narrow majority in the House of Representatives since January.
There have been 129 mass shootings – defined as incidents in which four or more people were shot or killed – so far this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.
Compiled by: Faizel Patel
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