NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — "I think the shooter is on the second floor," a caller inside The Covenant School told a 911 dispatcher.
"We think we hear gunshots," another caller said while trying to quiet the kids in the room. The caller quietly and gently shushed a child who wept they wanted to go home.
These are just snippets of the 911 calls made during The Covenant School shooting. Metro Nashville Police Department officials released the calls Thursday afternoon.
NewsChannel 5 has removed the callers' names and phone numbers in order to protect their privacy. The calls are hard to listen to - but we felt it was important to share them as another example of how the staff at the school responded. They were calm in what was a very chaotic and scary situation.
Three calls were released. Police say it took less than 15 minutes from the time the first call came in until police shot and killed the gunman.
One caller told 911 the shooting was happening on the east side of the building. The caller said that police would see broken glass on the ground where the gunman shot out the glass. The caller said the shooter was in the second-grade hallway with a vest on and an assault weapon. The caller said the gunman was in the upstairs hallway.
"We need someone now," the caller said.
On Monday, March 27, six people were shot and killed by a gunman at The Covenant School.
Police received the 911 call for the shooting at 10:13 a.m. Within 14 minutes, Metro Police were able to take down the shooter, 28-year-old Audrey Hale.
Hale gained access to the building through a side door that they shot through. From there, the shooter went upstairs and shot at police through the windows.
Two members of an officer team fired on Hale. Those two officers are officer Rex Englebert, a four-year MNPD veteran, and officer Michael Collazo, a nine-year MNPD veteran.
Who died in the shooting?
- Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9
- Hallie Scruggs, 9
- William Kinney, 9
- Cynthia Peak, 61
- Katherine Koonce, 60
- Mike Hill, age 61
The shooter was a 28-year-old Nashvillian who lived in the Belmont-Hillsboro neighborhood.
