March 29, 2023 - Nashville elementary school shooting

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Two active shooters in two elementary schools, both armed with assault rifles and both ready to kill. Police in both Uvalde, Texas, last May and Nashville just this week rushed to answer 911 calls of gunfire.

But while the Nashville shooter was stopped within minutes, with six innocents killed, it took well over an hour for the Uvalde siege to end. Nineteen children and two teachers died in Uvalde, though at least three of the victims had survived the initial gunfire.

Here are the key differences, and some similarities, reported from a CNN analysis of body camera footage from both instances and interviews given to investigators after the Uvalde massacre that have been obtained by CNN:

Entering the school. In Uvalde, Robb Elementary comprised separate buildings connected by breezeways. Officers coming from different directions could hear gunfire and used that to identify the right location, entering the westernmost building where the gunman was. They then tried to direct each other via radios.

In Nashville, a woman who appears to be a Covenant School staffer meets one of the first responders, Officer Rex Engelbert, and tells him: “The kids are all locked down. We have two kids that we don’t know where they are.” Engelbert is handed a key, opens the locked entry door, and with other officers already arriving, calls out to form a team.

Searching for the shooter. Sirens were blaring and emergency lights flashing as officers from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department entered the Covenant School building. With no initial sound of gunfire, they started to search room by room.

It’s a marked difference from Uvalde: After being shot at through the door at 11:37 a.m., the officers in Uvalde retreated. One began to head back toward the key classrooms – 111 and 112 – but no one followed him. It appears that no one got close to the classroom doors again until 12:50 p.m. when a team led by Border Patrol agents burst in and killed the gunman. There was a forward surge after shots were fired in the classroom at 12:21 p.m., but no one went in. And with no effective communication with each other or school administrators, there was confusion about whether children and teachers were trapped.

Firepower. In Uvalde, responding officers realized the shooter had a high-powered assault rifle, given the bullet casings they saw and by how the shots were piercing sheetrock. That seemed to have cowed then-school district police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who called the city police dispatcher and said: “He has an AR-15. He shot a whole bunch of times … He’s in one room. I need a lot of firepower, I need this building surrounded, surrounded with as many AR-15s as possible.”

Read more:

Steven Curtis Chapman performs at the Pantages Theatre on March 17, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Christian music singer, Steven Curtis Chapman, on Wednesday remembered the head of Covenant School Katherine Koonce as an “amazing person.”

Koonce, who was killed along with five others at the Nashville Christian school on Monday, “marked our family so significantly,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, noting an “amazing relationship” that she had with his children.

Chapman said the role Koonce played in his son Will’s life grew to “be so much more” after the tragic death of his youngest daughter.

In 2008, Chapman’s 5-year-old daughter, Maria, was accidentally and fatally struck in the family’s driveway by one of her brothers who was returning home in his truck.

The singer said his son Will, in particular, “was carrying a very, very heavy weight” following the incident, and that Koonce remained an important figure in his life. His son Caleb described her as “mentor, friend, confidant,” Chapman said.

Although Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake has said he can’t confirm how Koonce died, he did say it is possible that she was in the hallway by herself and that there was a confrontation. A Nashville city councilman said a witness told him Koonce spent her last moments trying to protect the children in her care.

Chapman said that detail doesn’t surprise him.

Brink Fidler, an ex-police officer who conducted active shooting drills through his company, Defend Systems, at Covenant School in Nashville, said that the teachers who followed the training saved lives.

Fidler noted that those who were killed were stuck in some sort of open area or hallway, while everyone else was either able to lockdown or evacuate.

Fidler knew several of the victims, including 9-year-old William Kinney, head of the school Katherine Koonce and custodian Mike Hill.

Fidler said that Koonce was vigilant in obtaining active shooter training for the school.

“She understood the severity of the topic. And the severity of the teachers needing to have the knowledge of what to do in that situation. So, she actually did her due diligence so much that she came and sat in on our training at another school first to make sure it was what she wanted for her staff. And then we worked very closely together to customize that training program for this location,” he said.

The vigil for the six victims of Monday’s shooting in Nashville ended with a prayer from Tennessee State Rep. Rev. Harold M. Love, Jr. 

 He called on the crowd to never forget the names of those killed as he named them one by one. 

At the close of the prayer, the crowd sang “Amazing Grace.”

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said a school shooting, like the one that killed six people at the Covenant School Monday, is a moment officers have trained for but hoped would never happen.

He said he is thankful for the Metro Nashville Police Department officers who went into the building without hesitation and for firefighters and other first responders who provided emergency care.

“Nashville comes together like no other place to comfort those who have suffered an unspeakable loss. We also comfort each other as we try to emotionally cope with this horrific crime that occurred Monday,” Drake said at a citywide vigil.

Sheryl Crow performs onstage during the Pre-GRAMMY Gala & GRAMMY Salute to Industry Icons Honoring Julie Greenwald and Craig Kallman on February 4, in Los Angeles, California.

Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow performed her song “I Shall Believe” at tonight’s vigil held in Nashville, Tennessee.

Singer Margo Price later performed an acapella rendition of Bob Dylan’s song, “Tears of Rage.”

Nashville Mayor John Cooper attends the National Museum of African American Music Dedication on June 19, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Mayor John Cooper thanked the Nashville community for coming to a candlelight vigil to honor the six people killed in an elementary school shooting Monday, saying people need to lean on each other to get through the tragedy.

He said the day of the shooting at Covenant School was the city’s worst day.

The candlelight vigil Wednesday night is an opportunity for people to be together as a community, Cooper said, thanking faith leaders, artists and first lady Jill Biden for being in attendance.

The mayor read out the names of the victims and acknowledged some of their families in the audience. He said no one should be afraid to ask for help and pointed to resources available, from grief counselors to ministers.

Cooper asked people in the crowd to reach out and touch someone’s shoulder “and be there for one another because we can only get through this tragedy together.”

Community leaders stood on the steps of One Public Square park in Nashville with candles in their hands. People filled in the park below them.

The seven children of shooting victim Mike Hill attended tonight’s vigil in Nashville, Mayor John Cooper said.

Hill, 61, was a beloved custodian at the Covenant School.

Known as “Big Mike” to students, Hill was a member of the facilities/kitchen staff, according to the school website.

A vigil honoring the three children and three adults killed in a shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville has begun.

Local, state and federal leaders were expected to attend as well as religious and community leaders, according to a statement from the city. First lady Jill Biden is also there.

The vigil is taking place at One Public Square park in Nashville.

The city has also set up a fund to help support the survivors of the shooting, according to a tweet from Nashville Mayor John Cooper.

Covenant School shooting victim Katherine Koonce.

A Nashville city council member says a witness told him the head of the Covenant School, Katherine Koonce, spent her last moments trying to protect the children in her care from the school shooter. 

“The witness said Katherine Koonce was on a Zoom call, heard the shots and abruptly ended the Zoom call and left the office. The assumption from there is that she headed towards the shooter,” Council member Russ Pulley said. He did not identify the witness.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said while he can’t confirm how Koonce died, he did say she was in the hallway by herself.

“There was a confrontation, I’m sure. You can tell the way she is lying in the hallway,” Drake said.

Pulley, a former FBI agent, said he knew law enforcement officers tried to get to the shooter as fast as possible and he suspects Koonce did as well. 

Pulley was in downtown Nashville preparing for a meeting with the mayor’s office when he got word of the shooting. He said he drove to the school, got through police barricades and eventually settled in at the church.

Pulley said he saw the teachers trying to take care of their students while they waited. 

“They were educators. They were in teacher mode,” Pulley said. “It was like a classroom down there. When the kids left, they broke down, but not while they were doing their jobs.”

William Kinney, one of the 9-year-old students at Covenant School killed in the shooting, had an “unflappable spirit,” friends of the Kinney family shared on GoFundMe.

Will had two sisters and enjoyed spending time with his family and friends.

“Our hearts are broken for his family as they try to find their way forward,” loved ones posted. 

As of 3 p.m. ET Wednesday, more than $112,000 has been raised in the GoFundMe campaign for the Kinney family.

Covenant School shooting victim Hallie Scruggs, age 9.

The aunt of Covenant School shooting victim Hallie Scruggs, said the 9-year-old had “a love for life that kept her smiling and running and jumping and playing and always on the go.”

She said Hallie and her son Chip were almost the same age and were very close.

“When they were together no one else existed and we would rarely know where they were or what they were up to,” she wrote.

Arnold said her niece was smart and “feisty enough to keep up with her 3 brothers and my 4 boys.”

She told CNN that she is on her way to Nashville to be with her brother and sister-in-law and that she cannot comprehend that her niece is gone.

“We are grieving so deeply. And for my brother and sister in law and my nephews who are living the most unspeakable nightmare. We hurt with you and wish we could take your hurt away,” she wrote.

A family walks away after visiting a memorial at the school entrance at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 29.

First lady Jill Biden is expected to attend a vigil Wednesday honoring those killed in the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, according to Biden spokesperson Vanessa Valdivia tweeted.

The first lady’s visit will mark the first in-person overture from the White House to a grieving community. It holds additional significance given Biden’s lifelong work as an educator.

Hours after the school shooting took place, Biden said, “I am truly without words, and our children deserve better. And we stand, all of us, we stand with Nashville in prayer.”

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said the White House was working through what kind of visit “helps the most.”  

President Biden has spoken with local officials, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Nashville Mayor John Cooper, Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty, and Nashville Police Chief John Drake. The president also spoke with the two officers who charged into the school and killed the shooter — Michael Collazo and Rex Engelbert. 

Some background: The first lady has traveled to the sites of mass shootings in the past, including meeting with families who lost children in the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last May. She has also reflected on what teachers and students endure at a time when active shooter training has become standard practice in many schools.

“I explain it to my students because, you know, they need to know what they should do if the worst happens,” she said.

The attacker who fatally shot three children and three adults this week at a private Christian school in Nashville is believed to have had weapons training, Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron told CNN.

The department is working to determine when and where the training would have taken place, he said. Police have not elaborated on what type of training they think the shooter may have had. 

The assailant had legally bought seven firearms – including an AR-15 and two others used in Monday’s attack – and hidden them at home, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, police also are working to craft a timeline of the attacker’s movements Monday, acknowledging “there may have been a stop along the way” by the shooter between leaving home and arriving at the school. 

DIG DEEPER with a timeline of key events confirmed so far in the attack.

The shooter who killed six people at a private Christian school in Nashville Monday had an emotional breakdown on the first day of class in college six years ago, a former instructor told CNN.

On the first day of class, Audrey Hale became upset about not being able to figure out how to set up a password and had to leave the classroom, said Maria Colomy, who said she taught Hale for two semesters in 2017 at Nossi College of Art.

It was Hale’s only outburst, Colomy added, recalling her former student as a small and quiet.

Hale began showing illustration work — that’s when Hale started to thrive, Colomy said, describing Hale’s work as “whimsical” and “child-like.”

“I could have seen [Hale] doing children’s books for a living,” said Colomy.

Colomy said she followed Hale on Facebook, and that for the past year, Hale’s posts grieved the apparent death of a girl who, according to Colomy, played basketball with Hale.  

“The only thing I would see [Hale] post was about was this girl,” Colomy said.

It was around this time that Hale posted a request on Facebook to be referred to as he/him and the name Aiden. Nashville Police have previously said Hale identified as transgender.

From what Colomy says she saw on Hale’s social, her former student “was suffering.”

With investigations still underway, nothing has emerged to indicate the Nashville mass shooter who killed three children and three adults Monday at the Christian school they’d once attended had any problems at the school or at home, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake told CNN.

Nashville Chief of Police John Drake speaks at a news conference at the school entrance after a deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 28.

Audrey Hale had been under care for an emotional disorder, Drake said Tuesday, but was “never committed to an institution,” he added Wednesday.

Hale had “been under the care of a doctor,” the chief told CNN, without giving further detail of the disorder. “We didn’t have any more information other than that was it. Law enforcement was never contacted. (Hale) was never committed to an institution. So, that’s basically that’s where we’re at right now.”

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin speaks from the Senate Floor on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Whip and Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin apologized to the American people for the fact that Democrats do not have the votes to pass gun safety legislation. 

Americans must know where their representatives or candidates stand on issues of gun safety, Durbin added.

“I will just tell you, Mr. President, that as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I am sorry that we don’t have the votes now to act. We need to do it,” the Democrat added.

President Joe Biden following the Nashville attack suggested any future action on gun violence will fall to Congress, saying he has exhausted all executive actions. He also reiterated Tuesday his call for Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, and said there is a “moral price to pay for inaction.”

White House officials are not currently planning a major new push around gun safety reform, three senior administration officials said.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy insisted on getting “all the facts” when asked whether he would put forward any legislation on guns following the deadly school shooting this week in Nashville.

“We want to see all the facts, we need to get the facts,” he said Wednesday.

McCarthy refused to respond – then left through an exit – when pressed by CNN about available facts related to others among at least 130 mass shootings so far in 2023.

This was McCarthy’s first response to reporters about the Nashville massacre after previously refusing to answer questions on it.

Children from The Covenant School in Nashville hold hands as they are taken to a reunification site on March 27.

The sense of safety inside the Covenant School in Nashville was shattered Monday when a former student burst into the private Christian school wielding an assault-style rifle and killed three 9-year-old children and three adults.

The shooter, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, was killed by police. Authorities believe the six victims were targeted randomly.

Here’s a timeline of what happened (all times are local):

9:57 a.m.

Hale sends an ominous message to childhood friend Averianna Patton on Instagram, Patton told CNN on Tuesday. The direct message from Hale said, “I’m planning to die today” and that Patton would see it on the news.

Disturbed by the message, Patton contacted her father for advice. He suggested she call a suicide prevention line for assistance, which she did. But because Patton was not the person at risk of harming herself, the call recipient advised Patton to contact local law enforcement, she said.

Around 10:13 a.m.

Patton calls the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office in Nashville but was on hold for “maybe like seven minutes,” she said. By then, the deadly rampage at Covenant School had already started.

10:13 a.m.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department receives a call about an active shooter inside the school. Surveillance video shows the shooter entering the school by firing through glass doors and climbing through.

10:18 a.m.

Timestamped surveillance footage from inside the school shows Hale armed with multiple weapons walking down a hallway.

10:24 a.m.

Nashville officers arrive at the school, Police Chief John Drake said. Bodycam footage shows police entering the school amid wailing fire alarms and immediately going to several rooms to look for the shooter.

Officers hear gunfire on the second floor and rush up the stairs as the shots grow louder, the video shows.

10:27 a.m.

Officer Rex Engelbert sees the shooter and fires about four rounds with an assault-style rifle. His bodycam footage shows the attacker collapsing.

Officer Michael Collazo then moved toward the shooter while it appeared a gun was still in the assailant’s hand. Collazo appeared to shoot the attacker on the ground four times with a handgun, yelling “Stop moving!” The officers finally approached the assailant, moved a gun away and then radioed “Suspect down! Suspect down!”