NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A shooting in a Nashville high school cafeteria Wednesday left a female student dead and another student wounded, nearly two years after another deadly school shooting in the city that ignited an emotional debate about gun control in Tennessee.
The 17-year-old shooter, who was also a student at Antioch High School, later shot and killed himself with a handgun, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news conference. Police identified him as Solomon Henderson.
Police Chief John Drake said the shooter “confronted” student Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, in the cafeteria and opened fire, killing her.
The wounded student was grazed by a bullet. He was treated and released from the hospital, Drake said. Another student was taken to a hospital for treatment of a facial injury that happened during a fall, Aaron said.
Metro Nashville Police, federal and state agencies are examining “very concerning online writings and social media posts connected to 17-year-old Solomon Henderson” as they work to establish a motive, police said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Investigators at this point have not established a connection between Henderson and the victims, and police said the gunfire may have been random, according to the statement.
Two school resource officers were in the building when the shooting happened around 11 a.m., Aaron said. They were not in the immediate vicinity of the cafeteria and by the time they got down there the shooting was over and the gunman had killed himself, Aaron said.
The school has about 2,000 students and is in Antioch, a neighborhood about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of downtown Nashville.
At a family safety center close to a hospital, officials helped shocked parents reunite with their children.
Dajuan Bernard was waiting at a Mapco service station to reunite with his son, a 10th grader, who was being held in the auditorium with other students Wednesday afternoon. He first heard of the shooting from his son, who “was a little startled,” Bernard said. His son was upstairs from the cafeteria but said he heard the gunfire.
“He was OK and let me know that everything was OK,” Bernard said.
“This world is so crazy, it could happen anywhere,” he said. “We’ve just got to protect the kids, and raise the kids right to prevent them from even doing this. That’s the hardest part.”
Fonda Abner said her granddaughter had called her a couple of times but that she only heard commotion and thought it was a pocket dial. They spoke briefly before being cut off.
“It’s nerve-racking waiting out here,” Abner said.
United Family Fellowship, a church in Antioch, was hosting a vigil Wednesday night “for anyone in the community who needs a space to pray, process, and find comfort,” the church said on Facebook.
Adrienne Battle, superintendent of Nashville schools, said earlier Wednesday that public schools have implemented a “range of safety measures,” including partnerships with police for school resource officers, security cameras with weapon-detection software, shatter-resistant film for glass, and security vestibules that are a barrier between outside visitors and the main entrance.
“Unfortunately, these measures were not enough to stop this tragedy,” Battle said.
She said there are questions about whether stationary metal detectors should be considered.
“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 said.
In October, a 16-year-old Antioch High School student was arrested after school resource officers and school officials discovered through social media that he had taken a gun to school the day prior. When he was stopped the following morning, officials found a loaded gun in his pants, police said.
Wednesday’s school shooting comes nearly two years after a shooter opened fire at a separate Nashville private elementary school and killed six people, including three children.
The tragedy prompted a monthslong effort among hundreds of community organizers, families, protesters and others pleading with lawmakers to consider passing gun control measures.
GOP lawmakers in the Republican-dominant state refused to do so. With the Republican supermajority intact after November’s election, it’s unlikely attitudes have changed enough to consider any meaningful bills that would address gun control.
Instead, lawmakers have been more open to adding more security to schools — including passing a bill last year that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school grounds, and bar parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed.
Antioch, a growing and diverse area of Nashville, has endured other prominent shootings in recent years. A 2017 fatal shooting at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ killed one woman and wounded seven people. And in 2018, a shooter killed four people at a Waffle House.
State Rep. Shaundelle Brooks ran for office in large part due to her son’s death in the Waffle House shooting and was elected last year after the Covenant shooting. She said the Antioch High shooting reinforces the need for gun control reforms. “We must do better,” she said.
“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 said in a statement. “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 phone away as a punishment, so when she got a message from his school about the shooting, she had no way to reach him.
“I was nervous,” she said. “I really was about to break down.”
After about three hours of waiting, she finally got a call from his English teacher and spoke with her son.
“When I heard his voice, I just broke down and started crying,” she said.
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Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed.
