Two teenagers are dead, including the shooter, and another student is injured following a shooting at a Nashville high school on Wednesday morning.
According to Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron, a 17-year-old student armed with a pistol opened fire at Antioch High School shortly after 11 a.m. The shooter fatally shot a 16-year-old Hispanic female student in the cafeteria before turning the gun on himself. Another student sustained a grazing wound, while a third was injured in a fall during the chaos.
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake identified the fatal victim as 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante and the shooter as 17-year-old Solomon Henderson. The identity of the injured student is still being determined.
The White House issued a statement, expressing its condolences and gratitude to first responders. “The President and his team are monitoring the news out of Nashville,” the statement read, offering “heartfelt thoughts and prayers” to those affected by the tragedy.
The incident occurred nearly two years after a similar shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, where three children and three adults were killed before police intervened and killed the gunman.
Police Chief Drake explained that the shooter arrived at school on a bus Wednesday morning, entered the cafeteria, and confronted the victim before firing several rounds. The two school resource officers on campus were elsewhere in the building at the time of the shooting and were unable to respond before the shooter ended his own life. The motive remains under investigation.
Brandi Lemons, an 18-year-old senior at Antioch High, recounted the terrifying moments in the cafeteria. She described hearing gunshots and fleeing in panic. As she attempted to escape, she saw the shooter turn the gun on himself.
Lemons and other students fled through the kitchen and exited the school, with Lemons calling her father from the parking lot. “We’re all scared and confused right now,” she said.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee offered his condolences in a statement, thanking first responders and expressing his prayers for the victims, their families, and the school community.
Chante Frye, the mother of a ninth-grade student, described the terrifying experience of receiving a text from her daughter during the lockdown. “It’s almost not surprising,” Frye said, citing increasing violence in schools.
Parents and students were later reunited at a local hospital designated as the reunification site.
