By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville authorities released 911 calls on Thursday that capture the terror inside a Christian elementary school during an attack this week in which three children and three adults were killed, as callers pleaded for help in hushed voices as sirens, crying and gunfire could be heard in the background.
Police released recordings of three 911 calls made during Monday’s attack at The Covenant School.
In one, a man tells the dispatcher he is with a group of people, including several children, who are walking away from the school toward a main road. Although the man remains calm, the tension and confusion of the situation are clear, with several adults speaking over each other and children’s voices in the background.
When the dispatcher requests a description of the shooter, the caller asks a second man to get on the line.
“All I saw was a man holding an assault rifle shooting through the door. It was — he’s currently in the second grade hallway, upstairs” the second man says. “White man. With camouflage. He had a vest on and an assault rifle.”
Asked about how many shots were fired, a woman responds, “I heard about 10 and I left the building.”
In another call that started just before 10:13 a.m., a woman tells a dispatcher that she can hear gunshots and that she’s hiding in an art room closet.
“It sounds like somebody is shooting guns,” the caller says. She then notes that there had been a pause in the gunshots.
The dispatcher asks if she was in a safe spot and says two other callers also reported gunshots at the school.
“I think so,” the woman says, as children can be heard in the background.
The teacher then says she can hear more gunshots, and muffled thuds can be heard.
“I’m hearing more shots,” the caller said. “Please hurry.”
Another caller says he is in a room on the second floor and asks the dispatcher to send help.
“I think we have a shooter at our church,” he says, later adding: “I’m on the second floor in a room. I think the shooter is on the second floor.”
Three adults and three 9-year-old children were killed in the attack. Authorities say police shot and killed the assailant, a former student they identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale.
Protestors gather in capitol, call for tighter gun laws
The release of the recordings came as people protested at the Tennessee Capitol on Thursday in favor of tighter gun controls, haranguing the Republican-led Legislature to take action.
Chants of “Save our children!” echoed noisily in the hallways between the state Senate and House chambers, with protesters setting up shop inside and outside the Capitol. Some silently filled the Senate chamber’s gallery, including children who held signs reading “I’m nine” — a reference to the age of the kids who died. Most protesters were removed from the gallery after some began yelling down at the lawmakers, “Children are dead!”
The protests followed a Wednesday night candlelight vigil in Nashville where Republican lawmakers stood alongside first lady Jill Biden, Democratic lawmakers and musicians including Sheryl Crow, who has called for stricter gun controls since the attack.
The vigil was somber and at times tearful, as speaker after speaker read the victims’ names and offered condolences to their loved ones but refrained from any statement that could be seen as political.
“Just two days ago was our city’s worst day,” Mayor John Cooper said. “I so wish we weren’t here, but we need to be here.”
Police have said Hale drove up to the school on Monday morning, shot out the glass doors, entered and began firing indiscriminately. Police later fatally shot Hale.
Absent from the Wednesday vigil was Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who has been an advocate for less restrictive gun laws along with greater school security and once intimated that prayer could protect Tennessee from school shootings and other things.
Lee issued a video statement Tuesday saying that Peak was a close friend of his wife, Maria, and that the two had been planning to meet for dinner on Monday.
“Maria woke up this morning without one of her best friends,” Lee said in a video statement, adding that his wife once taught with Peak and Koonce. The women, he said, “have been family friends for decades.”
Lee has avoided public appearances this week and has not proposed any possible steps his administration might take in response to the school shooting.
Legislators propose more school safety measures, avoid tighter gun restrictions
As with similar responses to gun violence, the state’s Republican leaders have avoided calling for tighter gun restrictions and instead have thrown their support behind adding more school security measures.
In a letter to Lee, Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called for securing windows and glass in school buildings, adding magnetic locks on doors, modernizing camera systems, and increasing armed guards.
“While these changes would come with a cost, I believe it is important for us to have a conversation about how to increase and modernize security at schools in Tennessee,” McNally wrote.
Along with improving school safety measures, McNally told reporters Thursday that he is in favor of red flag laws like one in Florida.
Meanwhile, Tennessee’s U.S. senators, Republicans Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, were pushing for legislation that would create a $900 million grant program to “harden” schools and hire safety officers.
Blackburn and Hagerty said Thursday that they would introduce the SAFE School Act, which would help public and private schools train military veterans and former law enforcement officers to provide security. They said the grants could also be used to bolster physical security measures. Blackburn introduced similar legislation in the last Congress, but it failed to gain support.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake has not said what police think the shooter’s motive was, only noting that the assailant didn’t target specific victims and had “some resentment for having to go to that school.”
Drake said the shooter had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the attack. Drake also said Hale left behind writings that the chief referred to as a “manifesto,” but authorities haven’t released the writings to the public.
Police have said Hale was under a doctor’s care for an undisclosed “emotional disorder.” However, authorities haven’t disclosed a link between that care and the shooting. Police also said Hale was not on their radar before the attack.
Social media accounts and other sources indicate that the shooter identified as a man and might have recently begun using the first name Aiden. Police have said Hale “was assigned female at birth” but used masculine pronouns on a social media profile, however police have continued to use female pronouns and the name Audrey to describe Hale.