NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A shooting in a Nashville high school cafeteria Wednesday left a female student dead and another student wounded, nearly two years after another deadly school shooting in the city that ignited an emotional debate about gun control in Tennessee.
The 17-year-old shooter, who was also a student at Antioch High School, later shot and killed himself with a handgun, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news conference. Police identified him as Solomon Henderson.
Police Chief John Drake said the shooter “confronted” student Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, in the cafeteria and opened fire, killing her.
The wounded student was grazed by a bullet. He was treated and released from the hospital, Drake said. Another student was taken to a hospital for treatment of a facial injury that happened during a fall, Aaron said.
Metro Nashville Police, federal and state agencies are examining “very concerning online writings and social media posts connected to 17-year-old Solomon Henderson” as they work to establish a motive, police said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Investigators at this point have not established a connection between Henderson and the victims, and police said the gunfire may have been random, according to the statement.
Two school resource officers were 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 got down there the shooting was over and the gunman had killed himself, Aaron said.
The school has about 2,000 students and is in Antioch, a neighborhood about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of downtown Nashville.
The children were bussed from the school to a medical center where officials helped shocked parents reunite with their children.
Dajuan Bernard was waiting at a Mapco service station to reunite with his son, a 10th grader, who was being held in the auditorium with other students Wednesday afternoon. He first heard of the shooting from his son, who “was a little startled,” Bernard said. His son was upstairs from the cafeteria but said he heard the gunfire.
“He was OK and let me know that everything was OK,” Bernard said.
“This world is so crazy, it could happen anywhere,” he said. “We’ve just got to protect the kids, and raise the kids right to prevent them from even doing this. That’s the hardest part.”
Fonda Abner said her granddaughter had called her a couple of times but that she only heard commotion and thought it was a pocket dial. They spoke briefly before being cut off.
“It’s nerve-racking waiting out here,” Abner said.
United Family Fellowship, a church in Antioch, was hosting a vigil Wednesday night “for anyone in the community who needs a space to pray, process, and find comfort,” the church said on Facebook.
