Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as Audrey Hale, 28, who the officer later said identified as transgender. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
By Susannah WALDEN with Charlotte PLANTIVE in Washington
Three children and three adults died this Monday in a massacre at a private Christian school in the southern United States, a drama that has reopened the debate on the ravages of firearms in the country.
Local police chief John Drake identified the shooter as 28-year-old Audrey Hale.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he is a trans person who identified with masculine pronouns.
He had with him “at least two assault rifles and a pistol,” local police spokesman Don Aaron said at a press conference. He was killed by security forces.
At mid-morning, the young man entered the small school, The Covenant School, through a secondary door, of which he is believed to have been a student, according to preliminary elements of the investigation.
He crossed the ground floor and went up to the first floor, firing numerous shots. Three students, ages 8 to 9, and three adults, ages 60 to 61, were killed, Aaron said.
The policemen went to the scene and after hearing shots upstairs they went up “immediately” and “killed” the attacker who was pronounced dead at 10:27 a.m. (15:27 GMT), that is, a quarter of an hour after the first call for help. accurate.
One of the victims, identified as Katherine Koonce, is listed as the principal on the school’s website.
Another, according to The New York Times, was a girl named Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of the church’s pastor, Chad Scruggs. According to this medium, the school was founded by the Covenant Presbyterian Church, a church that belongs to a conservative confession.
During the assault, one of the preschool teachers managed to call her daughter.
“He told me that she was hiding in a closet, that there were shots everywhere,” Avery Myrick told WSMV4 television, a local NBC affiliate. She was relieved that her mother is still alive, but she “grieves for all those” who lost loved ones to her in this massacre.
– “Tearing the soul” –
Throughout the day distraught parents came to pick up their children at the church where they were put under cover.
The motive for the attack, as yet unknown, could be related to a “grudge” of the attacker towards the school, Drake noted.
A “manifesto,” found at Hale’s home along with a map “showing the approaches” to the school, listed other potential targets and seemed to indicate a premeditated act.
When asked if Hale’s gender identity could have been a factor behind the attack, Drake replied: “There’s some theory about it, we’re looking into all the leads.”
President Joe Biden praised law enforcement for how quickly they reacted to the crime, calling it “disgusting,” ordering White House flags to be flown at half mast.
Gun violence “is tearing our communities apart, tearing at the soul of this nation,” he said from Washington, calling again on Congress to ban assault rifles.
The Democrat has long called for Congress to ban, or at least restrict, the possession of these weapons designed to cause the maximum number of victims, but Republicans oppose it.
Republican congressmen from the state of Tennessee, whose capital is Nashville, also expressed dismay on social media, without mentioning the issue of firearms.
“I am devastated,” Republican Senator Bill Hagerty tweeted. His colleague Marsha Blackburn called to “pray” for the victims.
– 4.368 muertos –
Deadly shootings are common in the United States, where some 400 million firearms in circulation caused more than 45,000 deaths in 2020 by suicide, accident or homicide, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ).
That year, for the first time, weapons became the main cause of death among children between the ages of 1 and 19, with 4,368 deaths, ahead of traffic accidents and overdoses, according to the same source.
The killings in schools constitute a tiny part of the total but leave an indelible mark on society.
A 2018 mass shooting at a Florida high school sparked a national movement, led by youth, to demand stricter gun control in the United States.
Despite the mobilization of more than a million protesters, the United States Congress has not adopted significant reforms because many congressmen are under the influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and do not want to upset the majority of citizens, very attached to the right to bear arms.
According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in February, 51% of Americans oppose the ban and only 47% support it.
chp/rle/erl/ll/dl/dbh
© Agence France-Presse