The suspect is reportedly dead after being confronted by the police in Nashville, Tennessee
At least five people have been killed in America’s latest mass shooting, an incident at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, that reportedly ended with the suspect’s death after the police arrived on scene on Monday.
The shooting occurred in the morning at Covenant School in southwest Nashville. “The shooter was engaged by MNPD (Metropolitan Nashville Police Department) and is dead,” the police said.
Local authorities haven’t yet provided specific information on deaths and injuries. “We can confirm we have multiple patients,” the Nashville Fire Department said. A spokesman for Vanderbilt University Medical Center said three children and two adults with gunshot wounds were pronounced dead after arrival. It wasn’t clear whether the shooter was among the deaths counted in the hospital’s casualty figures.
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Police and fire officials directed parents of Covenant School students to a nearby staging area, at Woodmont Baptist Church, to be reunited with their children.
Founded in 2001, the Covenant School is a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, which is located in the same complex. The school serves children from preschool age through 6th grade.
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The US has had dozens of school shootings in the past year, leading to increased calls for new restrictions on gun ownership. The US Congress last June passed the country’s first major gun control legislation in nearly three decades. Momentum for that bill was triggered by a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers.