A dramatic body camera footage showed how Nashville police officers responded after six people, including three children, were killed on Monday in yet another brutal shooting incident in the United States. The shooting took place at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
The video started by showing how a police officer entered the school carrying rifles. The video further showed police officers firing multiple bullets into the suspected attacker.
Police have identified the attacker as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who was a transgender person. The motive behind the soul-shaking incident is still unknown.
The video has been taken from the body-worn cameras of two of the responding officers. It showed police conducting a room-by-room search and when they cleared one classroom after another on the first floor, they went upstairs to the second floor and finally shot down the suspected shooter.
Shots can be heard seconds before the suspect comes into view and drops to the floor after apparently being shot. One officer fires additional rounds into the assailant, who appears to be moving on the ground as another officer repeatedly yells, “Get your hands away from the gun!”
Police spokesperson Don Aaron told reporters that the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said that they started receiving calls about a shooter at 10:13am (local time) and the suspect was pronounced dead by 10:27am (local time).
Content Warning: Some viewers may find shootout visuals disturbing. Discretion is advised
Nashville Police have released the bodycam footage and it cannot be stressed enough how remarkable this response was. These men are absolute heroes. pic.twitter.com/aOT8IJyH04
— Sara Gonzales (@SaraGonzalesTX) March 28, 2023
According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman, Nashville’s violence marked the 90th school shooting in the US this year. Last year saw 303 such incidents, the highest of any year in the database, which goes back to 1970.
During a previous press briefing, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale self-identified as being transgender, although Drake offered no further clarity. Drake and other officials repeatedly referred to the suspect with female pronouns. Hale used male pronouns on a LinkedIn page that listed recent jobs in graphic design and grocery delivery.
(With inputs from agencies)
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