Bodycam footage captures moment police fire at Nashville school shooter

Police bodycam footage captures officers cornering the attacker and opening fire, ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports

Footage released by the police shows the moment a school shooter was cornered and shot dead by police.

Police say Audrey Hale, 28, killed three children and three adults at a Christian primary school in Nashville on Monday.

The suspected attacker was a former pupil who had a plot to murder, police say.

Videos of the shooting made public include edited surveillance footage showing a car driving up to the school, glass doors being shot out and the shooter ducking through one of them.

Additional video, from Officer Rex Engelbert’s bodycam, shows a woman greeting police outside as they arrive at The Covenant School on Monday. “The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are,” she tells police. “OK, yes, ma’am,” Mr Engelbert replies. The woman then directs officers to Fellowship Hall and says people inside had just heard gunshots. “Upstairs are a bunch of kids,” she says. Three officers, including Mr Engelbert, search rooms one by one, holding rifles. “Metro Police,” officers yell. “Let’s go, let’s go,” one officer yells.

As alarms are heard going off in the school, one officer says, “It sounds like it’s upstairs.” Officers climb stairs to the second floor and enter a lobby area. “Move in,” an officer yells. Then a barrage of gunfire is heard. “Get your hands away from the gun,” an officer yells twice. Then the shooter is shown motionless on the floor.

Hale fired bullets through the school doors to break in and had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points.

The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all nine years old, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, head of the school, Katherine Koonce, 60 and caretaker Mike Hill, 61.

Hale had also conducted surveillance of the building, located in the affluent Green Hills neighbourhood in Nashville, Tennessee, before carrying out the massacre, according to police.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake did not say exactly what drove the suspect to open fire Monday morning at The Covenant School before being killed by police.

But he said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the suspect had “some resentment for having to go to that school.”

Mr Drake also gave chilling examples of the suspect's elaborate planning for the targeted attack, the latest in a series of mass shootings in schools across the US.

He told reporters: "We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident.

“We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”

Panicked parents rushed to the school to see if their children were safe and tearfully hugged their kids, while a stunned community held vigils for the victims.

Rachel Dibble, who was at a nearby church where children were taken to be reunited with their parents, described the scene as everyone being in “complete shock.”

“People were involuntarily trembling,” she said. “The children… started their morning in their cute little uniforms... now their whole lives changed today.”

Police identified the suspect as 28-year-old Hale.

At a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said Hale was transgender, but a police spokesperson declined to elaborate on how Hale currently identified.

Authorities said Hale was armed with two “assault-style” weapons as well as a handgun.

At least two of them were believed to have been obtained legally in the Nashville area, according to the chief.

Police said a search of Hale’s home turned up a sawn-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other unspecified evidence.

The school has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members.

“Our community is heartbroken,” a statement from the school said. “We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church.

"We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”

In a statement, Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas confirmed that their former lead pastor, Chad Scruggs, lost his daughter Hallie in Monday’s shooting at the Covenant School.

“We love the Scruggs family and mourn with them over their precious daughter Hallie. Together, we trust in the power of Christ to draw near and give us the comfort and hope we desperately need.”

How many mass shootings have there been in American schools, and across the US this year?

Monday's incident was the 131st mass shooting in the US in 2023 - where four or more people had been injured or killed, not including the attacker - according to Gun Violence Archive.

If a mass shooting is defined as resulting in the death of four or more people, not including the perpetrator, 175 people have died in 15 such events connected to US schools and colleges - from 1999′s Columbine High School massacre to Monday’s shooting in Nashville.

Before the violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass killings at K-12 schools - the US equivalent to primary schools - since 2006 in which four or more people were killed within a 24-hour period.

That's according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the suspects were male.

The database does not include school shootings in which fewer than four people were killed, which have become far more common in recent years. Just last week alone, for example, school shootings happened in Denver and the Dallas-area within two days of each other.

Monday’s tragedy unfolded over roughly 14 minutes. Police received the initial call about an active shooting at 10.13am.

Police release footage of the moment a former pupil stormed their school in Nashville, Tennessee, killing six people

Officers were clearing the first floor of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, spokesman Don Aaron said. Police later said the suspect fired at arriving officers from a second-floor window and had come armed with significant ammunition.

Officer's Michael Collazo and Rex Englebert, from a five-member team, opened fire in response, killing the suspect at 10.27am, Mr Aaron said.

Mr Aaron said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.

US President Joe Biden, speaking at the White House on Monday, called the shooting a “family’s worst nightmare” and implored Congress again to pass a ban on certain semi-automatic weapons.

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