Antioch High School in Nashville: Teenager fatally shoots student and himself, police say

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A student was killed and another student was injured Wednesday in a shooting in a Nashville high school cafeteria, nearly two years after another deadly shooting at a city school that sparked an emotional debate over gun control in Tennessee. .

The 17-year-old shooter, who was also a student at Antioch High School, then shot himself with a handgun, Metro Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said at a conference press. Police identified him as Solomon Henderson.

Police Chief John Drake said the shooter “confronted” a 16-year-old student in the cafeteria and opened fire, killing her. Police identified her as Josselin Corea Escalante. Drake said police are investigating the motive and whether he targeted the specific students he shot.

The student who was injured suffered a graze wound and was treated and released from the hospital, Drake said. Another student was taken to the hospital for treatment of a facial injury sustained in a fall, Aaron said.

There were two school resource officers 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 arrived, the shooting was over and the shooter had killed himself, Aaron said.

The school has approximately 2,000 students and is located in Antioch, a neighborhood about 10 miles southeast of downtown Nashville.

At a family safety center near a hospital, officials helped shocked parents find their children.

Dajuan Bernard was waiting at a Mapco gas station to meet his son, a 10th grader, who was being held in the auditorium with other students Wednesday afternoon. He first heard about the shooting from his son who “was a little surprised,” Bernard said. Her son was upstairs in the cafeteria but said he heard gunshots.

“He was fine and let me know everything was OK,” Bernard said.

“This world is so crazy this could happen anywhere,” he said. “We just need to protect children and raise them properly to stop them from doing this.” This is the hardest part.

Fonda Abner, whose granddaughter is a student at the school, said Antioch High does not have metal detectors that would alert authorities to the presence of a gun. She said her granddaughter called her several times, but only heard noise and thought it was a pocket dial. They spoke briefly before being interrupted.

“It’s nerve-wracking waiting here,” Abner said.

Nashville Schools Superintendent Adrienne Battle said public schools have implemented a “series of safety measures,” including partnerships with police for school resource officers, security cameras with software weapons detection, shatterproof window film and security vestibules which are a barrier between outside visitors and the main entrance.

“Unfortunately, these measures were not enough to end this tragedy,” Battle said.

She noted that questions arose about whether stationary metal detectors should be considered.

“While previous research has shown it to have limitations and unintended consequences, we will continue to explore emerging technologies and strategies to enhance school safety,” Battle said.

In October, a 16-year-old Antioch High School student was arrested after school resource officers and school officials discovered via social media that he had taken a gun to school the day before. When he was arrested the next morning, authorities found a loaded gun in his pants, police said.

Wednesday’s school shooting comes nearly two years later gunman opens fire at another private elementary school in Nashville and killed six people, including three children.

The tragedy sparked a months-long effort among hundreds of community organizers, families, protesters and more imploring lawmakers to consider passing gun control measures in response to the shooting .

However, in a Republican-dominated state, Republican lawmakers have refused to do so. With the large Republican majority intact after the November election, it is unlikely that attitudes have changed enough to consider meaningful bills that would address gun control.

Instead, lawmakers have been more willing to strengthen school safety — including passing a bill last year that would allow allow certain teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school groundsand prevent parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed.

Antioch, a diverse and growing neighborhood in Nashville, has seen other high-profile shootings in recent years. A Fatal shooting in 2017 at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, killed one woman and injured seven people. And in 2018, a shooter killed four people at Waffle House.

State Rep. Shaundelle Brooks ran for office largely because of 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 have to do better,” she said.

“Since losing my son, Akilah, in a mass shooting in 2018, I have been fighting to make sure it never happens again,” the Nashville Democrat said in a statement. “Here we are almost seven years later, and our communities are still impacted by gun violence. »

Samantha Dickerson confiscated her 14-year-old son’s phone as punishment. So when she received a message from her school about the shooting, she had no way to contact him.

“I was nervous,” she said. “I was really close to collapsing.”

After about three hours of waiting, she finally received a call from her English teacher and spoke with her son.

“When I heard his voice, I 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.