Three children, three adults dead in Nashville school shooting

Three children and three adult staff members died from gunshot wounds in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, police said, after a woman armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun opened fire in a school.

Officials said the 28-year-old white woman, whose name has not yet been released, entered the school through a side entrance and was killed by police, bringing the death total in the shooting to at least seven. Police did not specify the ages of the victims.

Police had initially indicated the shooter as a teenager. Officials now believe, based on initial findings, that the Nashville woman was once a student at the school.

Police released the names and ages of the victims later on Monday. The three students — Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney — were all nine years old. The three adults that were killed were in their 60s — Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

Law enforcement officials said they responded to a call reporting a shooting at the Covenant School at 10:13 a.m. local time and cleared the first floor of the school. Officers then heard shots being fired on the second floor and moved toward the gunfire, engaging with the shooter and killing her. The shooter was dead by 10:27 a.m.

The only other injury reported was an officer who was cut by glass.

Police said that on a typical day, there are usually around 209 students in the school. There were no school resource officers on the campus, according to police, since it is a private school.

The Nashville Fire Department said earlier on Twitter that it responded to the Covenant School, which is described as a Christian elementary school with a preschool department, according to the school’s website.

“We can confirm we have multiple patients,” the department said, adding that “this is an active scene.”

The Metro Nashville Police Department confirmed that an “active shooter” event took place at the school and that the shooter was engaged by officers and was killed.

WKRN in Nashville reported that the FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives were responding to the incident.

Officials said that a reunification area had been established at a nearby church.

“In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper (D) wrote on Twitter.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) said his office was closely monitoring the situation.

Julia Mueller contributed to this report, which was updated at 5:25 p.m.