Antioch High School Shooter in Cafeteria Murder-Suicide Identified as ROTC Cadet
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A shooting at the Nashville cafeteria at a high school Wednesday night left a female student dead and another injured just two years after a deadly gun attack in a city school caused a heated debate over the issue of gun control in Tennessee.
The shooter, who was 17 years old, was also an Antioch High School student. Antioch High School later took his own life by shooting himself with an assault weapon, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news conference. Police identified the suspect as Solomon Henderson.
Police chief John Drake said the shooter “confronted” student Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, in the cafeteria and then opened fire, which killed her.
The student who was wounded was struck by the bullet. He was treated and then released from the hospital, Drake said. Another student was transported to the hospital to treat facial injuries that occurred after a fall, Aaron said.
Metro Nashville Police, federal and state agencies are investigating “very concerning online writings and social media posts connected to 17-year-old Solomon Henderson” to identify the motive behind the incident, the police stated in a statement on Wednesday evening.
The investigation has not found a link with Henderson as well as the shooting victims, and police believe that the shooting could have been random, according to the report.
A pair of school resource personnel were inside the building at the time of the shooting, which occurred at around 11. a.m., Aaron said. They weren’t near the cafeteria, and by the time they were there, the shooting had ended, and the shooter had killed himself, Aaron said.
The school has around 2000 students and is located in Antioch, a neighbourhood about 10 miles (16 kilometres) south of downtown Nashville.
The kids were transported from school to a medical facility, where the officials assisted shocked parents in reconnecting with their children.
Dajuan Bernard was waiting in a Mapco service station to reconnect with his son, a 10th grader who was confined in the auditorium along with other students on Wednesday afternoon. He first heard about the shooting through his son, who “was a little startled,” Bernard stated. His son was upstairs in the cafeteria but said that he heard gunshots.
“He was OK and let me know that everything was OK,” Bernard said.
“This world is so crazy, it could happen anywhere,” he added. “We’ve only got to be vigilant about children, and educate the children right so that they can stop the possibility of this happening. This is the toughest part.”
Fonda Abner said her granddaughter had called her several times, but she could not hear any commotion and assumed it was a pocket phone. They spoke briefly but were abruptly cut off.
“It’s nerve-racking waiting out here,” Abner stated.
United Family Fellowship, a church located in Antioch, is hosting an evening vigil “for anyone in the community who needs a space to pray, process, and find comfort,” the church wrote on Facebook.
Adrienne Battle, the superintendent of Nashville schools, announced earlier Wednesday that Nashville schools have put in place the following “range of safety measures,” which include partnerships with the police officers for school resource officers and security cameras that have security software that detects weapons, shatter-resistant film for glass, as well as security vestibules which act as an obstacle between visitors from outside and the main entryway.
“Unfortunately, these measures were not enough to stop this tragedy,” Battle declared.
There are concerns regarding the possibility that stationary detectors made of metal are worth considering.
“While past research has shown they have had limitations and unintended consequences, we will continue to explore emerging technologies and strategies to strengthen school safety,” Battle declared.
In October, a 16-year-old Antioch High School student was taken into custody following a school resource officer, and school officials found out via social media that he’d brought a gun to school that day before. After he was arrested in the morning, police found a loaded firearm in his pants, the police stated.
The school shooting on Wednesday comes almost two years after a gunman fired at a different Nashville privately-run elementary school, killing six victims, including three children.
The tragedy led to a lengthy campaign by many community leaders, family members, protesters, and others who pleaded with legislators to take into consideration the possibility of passing measures to regulate guns.
GOP lawmakers from the predominantly Republican state have refused to pass any legislation. With the Republican majority still in place following the election in November, It’s unlikely that attitudes have changed sufficiently to contemplate any legislation that could meaningfully deal with gun control.
However, lawmakers are more open to introducing more security measures to schools. One of these was adopting a bill in the last session which would permit some staff members and teachers to carry concealed guns in public schools and prevent students and parents from knowing who is carrying guns.
Antioch, a thriving and diverse part of Nashville, has also been the site of notable shootings in the past. A 2017 shooting that killed a person at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ injured one woman and killed seven others. In the year 2018, the same gunman killed four persons in the Waffle House.
State Rep. Shaundelle Brooks ran for office largely because of her son’s tragic death in the shooting at Waffle House and was elected in the year following her involvement in the Covenant shooting. She said that the Antioch High shooting reinforces the necessity of reforms to gun control. “We must do better,” she added.
“Ever since I lost my son, Akilah, in a mass shooting in 2018, I have been fighting to ensure this never happens again,” the Nashville Democrat declared in an announcement. “Here we are almost 7 years later, and our communities are still being impacted by gun violence.”
Samantha Dickerson had taken her 14-year-old son’s cell phone to punish him, and when she received a text message from his school concerning this shooting incident, she was left with no way of reaching her son.
“I was nervous,” she admitted. “I really was about to break down.”
After an hour of waiting, she finally received a phone message from her English teacher. She then spoke to her son.
“When I heard his voice, I just broke down and started crying,” she said.
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