Nashville school shooter legally bought 7 firearms from 5 stores, police chief says
Nashville school shooter legally bought 7 firearms from 5 stores, police chief says
Three of the seven firearms that the shooter in the
Nashville school massacre legally purchased from five nearby businesses were
used in the assault on Monday. According to the police, the purchases of guns
were made over some time while being kept a secret from the shooter's
parents, who he shared a residence with.
The shooter's parents, Audrey Hale, 28, believed their
daughter shouldn't possess any guns. According to Metropolitan Nashville Police
Chief John Drake, they thought the shooter only had one firearm and sold it.
Also, the gunman was receiving therapy for an "emotional
condition" not disclosed to the authorities. According to Drake, Tennessee doesn't have a "red
flag" statute that would allow police to take a person's weapons. The
chief indicated that officials would have attempted to seize the guns if it had
been known that the gunman was suicidal or meant to harm someone else. Drake stated, "As it stands, we honestly had no idea
who this person was. Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, all
nine years old, were identified as the three children that perished in the
attack. According to investigators, The Covenant School employed Mike Hill, 61,
Katherine Koonce, 60, and Cynthia Peak, 61, who were all killed in the attack. According to Drake, Hill, a school janitor, was shot through a glass door that the shooter
exploited to get inside. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee claimed in a video statement
that his wife, Maria Lee, had a long-standing friendship with two of the
victims, Koonce and Peak. According to Lee, the three had previously worked
together as a teaching team. After serving as a substitute teacher at Covenant, Peak
"was supposed to come over to have supper with Maria last night,"
according to Lee. Police spokesman Don Aaron stated that "this school,
this church facility was a target of the shooter," but investigators have
not discovered any proof that the attacker singled out any of the victims. Reporting was contributed by Sarah Lynch Baldwin.