'Didn't know what to do': Tennessee students describe chaos in fatal high school shooting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Chaos unfolded at a Nashville high school on Wednesday after a shooting killed one student and injured another, the latest incident involving firearms witnessed in the United States.
The shooting occurred shortly after 11 a.m. local time at Antioch High School, about 17 miles southeast of downtown Nashville. Authorities said the suspected shooter, identified as Solomon Henderson, was an active student at the school and was found dead at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The victim killed in the shooting was identified by police as Josselin Corea Escalante, 16. The male student who was injured suffered a graze and another student was transported to the hospital for minor facial injuries from a fall.
Worried parents rushed to the school as the news spread, jamming the exit near the school off Interstate 24 and running along Murfreesboro Pike as they desperately tried to navigate police blockades. By 1 p.m., more than 100 had gathered at the reunification site about a half mile from the school as buses full of students arrived.
Chante Frye said her daughter, a ninth grader, was in a classroom when she heard the gunshots. She texted her mom that the school was on lockdown.
"It was terrifying," Frye said, as she stood across from the Ascension Saint Thomas Antioch hospital where reunification with students was about to occur. "But it's almost not surprising because it's getting worse with the fights and the violence at school."
Student: 'I didn't know what to do'
Tinashae Smith’s body trembled on the bus ride away from Antioch High School. Hours earlier, Smith, a ninth-grade student at the school was in class when she saw people running down the halls.
She told her teacher, who tried to call the school administration, but Tinashae said no one answered. When another student checked their phone and said there was a shooting, she didn't want to believe it. But then her sister, a 2021 graduate from the school, texted her and said the same thing.
After an intercom announcement, Tinashae's class quickly hid under their desks and blocked the door with tables, desks, and chairs.
"I was confused," she said. "I didn't know what to do. I was scared. Everything was just so bad."
At about 2 p.m. she met her sister at the reunification site.
"I would never want to experience this ever again in my lifetime," Tinashae said.
Sophomore Sophia Avendano was in the cafeteria when the shooting happened. She tried to call her mother, but the screaming around her was so loud they were forced to hang up and text instead. Outside, her brother David was running laps as part of his Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.
At some point, Sophia ran out of the cafeteria into the chaos, making phone calls to her parents with updates when she could.
Covenant mom 'sickened' to see another school shattered by gun violence
The shooting jarred the Nashville community on a cold, clear morning nearly two years after three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members were killed in a shooting at The Covenant School, a private elementary school in Nashville. Parents impacted by the shooting said they are heartbroken and "sickened" to see another young community shattered by gun violence.
News of the Antioch shooting struck Mary Joyce with haunting familiarity on Wednesday. Her 9-year-old daughter had huddled in a Covenant School classroom on March 27, 2023, when the shooting occurred.
"My heart aches for the students and teachers and parents of Antioch High School," Joyce said. "It is unimaginable until it happens to you, and the terrifying impact and loss from today will never leave them. They will carry this day forever. How many more... this must stop."
After the Covenant shooting, parents like Joyce began to mobilize to pass gun safety legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly. Voices for a Safer Tennessee, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, was among the groups developed amid widespread public protests for firearms reform.
In a statement, Voices said the group was "devastated" to learn about the Antioch shooting.
"Our hearts break for the students, families and staff impacted by this tragedy," the statement said in part. "Schools should be safe spaces where children can learn and grow without fear of violence. We also stand alongside the families of victims and survivors of mass shootings who are continually retraumatized when news of yet another shooting breaks."
There were 330 school shootings in the U.S. last year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman that lists such shootings since 1966. Last year's total was the second-highest, topped only by 2023 when there were 349 such incidents, according to the K-12 database.
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Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Paste BN; Reuters