The dramatic six-minute video complements an earlier release that, late Monday, contained roughly two minutes of edited surveillance footage showing the shooter’s vehicle driving to the school, The windows were shot open and the shooter got through one of them.
New video from Officer Rex Engelbert’s body camera shows a woman greeting police outside as they arrive at Covenant School on Monday. “All the kids are locked up, but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are,” she told police.
“OK, yes, ma’am,” Engelbert replied.
The woman then directed officers to the Scholarship Hall and said that people inside had just heard gunshots. “Upstairs was a bunch of kids,” she said.
The three officers, including Engelbert, searched the rooms in turn, armed with rifles. “Metro police,” shouted the officers.
“Let’s go, let’s go,” shouted an officer.
When the school alarm went off, an officer said, “Looks like it’s upstairs.”
The officers climbed the stairs to the second floor and into the lobby area. “Come in,” shouted an officer. Then a series of gunshots were heard.
“Get your hands off the gun,” one officer shouted twice. The shooter then lay motionless on the floor.
Police had previously identified the shooter, who was killed by police, as 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale. They say Strong was a former student and was shot through the door of a private Christian elementary school. Hale drew a detailed map of the school, including possible entry points, and conducted surveillance of the building prior to the massacre, authorities said.
Police response times to school shootings came under greater scrutiny after the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, during which 70 minutes passed before law enforcement entered the scene. come in Class. In Nashville, police said 14 minutes had passed from the initial call about a school shooter until the suspect was killed, but they did not say how long it took them to arrive.
Surveillance video on the Covenant School campus released by police shows the time before 10:11 a.m., when the gunman blew open a window. Police said they received a call about a gunman at 10:13 a.m. but did not say exactly when they arrived and edited bodycam footage did not include a timestamp. A police spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email on Tuesday asking when they arrived or if there is any version of the video with a timestamp.
The police gave unclear information about Hale’s gender. For hours on Monday, police identified the shooter as a woman. During a late afternoon press conference, the sheriff said Hale was transgender. After the news conference, police spokesman Don Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale was identified.
On a Tuesday, police spokesman Kristin Mumford said Hale was “designated female at birth. Hale used masculine pronouns on a social media profile.”
The victims were children Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinneyare all 9 years old. The adults are Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists Katherine Koonce as the school’s principal. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016. Peak is the substitute teacher and Hill is the custodian, according to investigators.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake did not say exactly what motivated Hale but said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the shooter had “a bit of resentment about having to go to that school.” .
Drake has given macabre examples of the shooter’s meticulous plan for the targeted attack, the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country increasingly worried about bloodshed. in school.
He told reporters: “We have a manifesto, we have a number of articles that we are going to look at regarding this date, the real case. “We have a map drawn of how all of this is going to play out.”
Authorities said Hale was armed with two “assault-style” weapons, as well as a handgun. According to the sheriff, at least two of them are believed to have been obtained legally in the Nashville area. Police said a search of Hale’s home resulted in a sawed-off shotgun, a second handgun and other unidentified evidence.
Chairperson Joe Biden said he spoke with the Nashville police chief, the mayor and senators in Tennessee. He begged Congress to pass stronger gun safety legislation, including a ban on assault weapons.
“Congress must act,” Biden said. Most Americans think that owning an assault weapon is bizarre, it’s a crazy idea. They oppose it.”
Founded as the pastor of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, Covenant School is located in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville, home to the popular Bluebird Café, beloved by musicians and songwriters prefer.
The school has about 200 students from kindergarten through sixth grade, as well as about 50 staff members.
Prior to Monday’s violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass murders at K-12 schools since 2006, in which four or more people were killed in a 24-hour period, according to a database compiled by K-12 schools. The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern maintain. University. In all of them, the shooters were male.
The database does not include school shootings with fewer than four people killed, which have become much more common in recent years. For example, last week alone, school shootings occurred in Denver and the Dallas area two days apart.
At The Covenant School, officers began cleaning the first floor when they heard gunshots coming from the second floor, Aaron said. Police later said the gunman opened fire on incoming officers from a second-story window.
Police identified Engelbert, a four-year member of the force, and Collazo, a nine-year member, as the officers who shot Hale dead.
Surveillance video released Monday shows the shooter’s vehicle driving to the school from multiple angles, including one where children can be seen playing on swings in the back.
Next, an interior view shows the school’s glass door being blown open and the shooter crawling through one of the shattered doors.
More footage from inside shows the shooter walking through a school hallway, holding a long-barreled gun, and entering a room labeled “church office,” then exiting. In the end of the footage, the shooter can be seen walking down another long hallway with his gun drawn. The shooter was not seen interacting with anyone else on the video without sound.
Aaron said no police were present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church run school.
