On Tuesday, March 27th, 2021, The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced devastating violence. A single female shooter, later identified by police as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, entered the school with two assault-style rifles and a handgun, taking the lives of three children and three adults, leaving many more injured.
At about 10:13 a.m. Central Time, first responders received reports of shots fired from an upper level of the school building. Upon arrival, officers immediately set out to engage the threat and killed the assailant.
After the shooter was neutralized, three children were taken to Monroe Carel Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where they succumbed to their wounds. Three adults have been reported dead. The police chief said Hale had reportedly been a student at the school, though it is unclear when she had attended.
Police identified the victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all of whom were 9-year-old students. The three adults were Mike Hill, 61, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60.
In the wake of this tragic violence, students of The Covenant School, ranging from preschoolers to sixth graders, were swiftly taken to Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families. Firefighters and rescuers did their best to keep the students from seeing the gruesome scene as they cleared them from the school.
The Covenant School was established in 2001 and is a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church. Its enrollment is about 200 students, with 33 faculty members on staff.
This tragedy of The Covenant School is a sharp and painful reminder of the importance of mental health awareness in combination with stricter gun control laws. Our thoughts and hopes go out to the victims and their families.