Photo: The Covenant School
Dr. Katherine Koonce,the leader of The Covenant School, was killed when a 28-year-old former studentarmed with two “assault-type rifles"and one pistol opened fire inside the private school on Monday morning. Students Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, Hallie Scruggs, 9, William Kinney, 9, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and custodian Mike Hill, 61 were also murdered.
Russ Pulley, a member of the Nashville city council and a former FBI agent, said Koonce, 60, and the rest of the school staff acted heroically in the face of the senseless violence.
“The headmaster, Dr. Koonce, upon hearing the first shots, ran towards the danger. She also made sure the school was prepared with active shooter training and protocols. Those actions saved countless lives,” Pulley said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“Our police officers arrived on the scene, entered the school with an active shooter, located and neutralized the shooter all within 14 minutes of the initial call,” Pulley said, adding that he was “grateful for the heroic efforts of the school staff and our police department.”
Top Row, L-R: Katherine Koonce, Mike Hill, Cynthia Peak Bottom Row, L-R: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs.The Covenant School; Facebook (4)
“My thoughts and prayers are with the families who lose loved ones and the entire Covenant School community as they deal with this terrible tragedy,” he said.
Additional weapons and maps ofThe Covenant Schoolwere found at Hale’s Brightwood Avenue home, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department stated in a release Monday.
Police also revealed they recovered writings from the home that revealed the attack was “calculated and planned.” This included diagrams “drawn of the school in detail” that appeared to include entry and exit points and surveillance, the release added.
Shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.Jonathan Mattise/AP/Shutterstock
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Hale was a former student of the religious school, which Koonce has been the headmaster of since April 2016.
“Katherine was as solid as a friend could be,” Button said. “Her faith was her foundation. Her family was her greatest love, yet she always wanted to work and give back so other families and children could also feel loved and cared for.”
Nashville school shooting.John Amis/AP/Shutterstock
According to statistics from theGun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot, regardless of the number of fatalities, there were 128 mass shootings across the U.S. in 2023 as of Monday morning.
How to help
You can donate to the families of the victims throughThe Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.ViVEandVictimsFirsthave also created GoFundMe pages for donations. Bothfundraisers are verified.
source: people.com
