Nashville, Tennessee — A female student was killed and another injured in a shooting in a Nashville high school cafeteria on Wednesday, authorities said, jarring the community nearly two years after another school massacre sparked a debate about gun reform in Tennessee.
The shooting happened shortly after 11 a.m. at Antioch High School, according to Metro Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron.
According to authorities, a male student armed with a pistol opened fire in the cafeteria, killing Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, and leaving another male student with a graze wound.
According to police, the suspected shooter, Solomon Henderson, 17, was a student at the school and died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Metro Nashville Police Department Chief John Drake said it was unclear whether the shooting was targeted or if there was a reason for it.
According to the police chief, the suspect took the bus to Antioch High School on Wednesday morning before confronting and fatally shooting a fellow student in the cafeteria. According to Drake, the shooter fired several rounds before committing suicide.
Drake said an investigation into the shooting is underway, with a number of leads.
A fourth student was taken to the hospital for minor facial injuries sustained in a fall.
The shooting occurred nearly two years after three nine-year-old students and three adult staff members were killed at The Covenant School in Nashville. Police eventually shot and killed the shooter.
‘Heartbreaking day’
The school’s two resource officers were present in the building but not in the cafeteria at the time of the shooting, so they were unable to intervene before the shooter committed suicide, according to Aaron.
Drake stated that police are looking into some online “materials” as they try to figure out why the attack took place.
“We believe there’s some materials out there, and maybe they were seen,” Drake stated, adding that if a person “said something, maybe more could have been done.”
As the news spread, concerned parents rushed to the school, jamming the exit as they desperately attempted to navigate police barricades.
By 1 p.m., more than 100 people had gathered at the reunification site, about a half mile from the school, as buses carrying students arrived.
Adrienne Battle, Metro Nashville Public Schools Director, described it as a “heartbreaking day” for Antioch High, the Metro Nashville Police Department, and the greater Nashville community.
“My heart goes out to these families as they face unimaginable loss,” she told the audience.
Chante Frye stated that her daughter, a ninth grader, was in class when she heard the gunshots. She texted her mother that the school was on lockdown.
“It was terrifying,” Frye said as she stood across from the Ascension Saint Thomas Antioch hospital, where the students were about to be reunited. “But it’s almost not surprising because it’s getting worse with the fights and the violence at school.”
Student heard ‘big pop’ on way to the cafeteria
Brandi Lemons, 18, a senior at the high school, stated that she was walking into the cafeteria with other students for lunch when she heard gunshots.
“I heard a big pop and we all turned around and tried to find out what it was, and then three more pops after that and we all took off running to the left side of the cafeteria,” Lemons recalls.
She claimed she was about to escape by climbing over a milk counter when she noticed the shooter approaching her from behind a corner. Lemons claimed he then placed the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
Lemons said the shooter attended the high school, but she had never spoken with him.
Lemons stated that she ran through the cafeteria’s kitchen and out the school’s back exit, where she called her father from the parking lot to pick her up. She stated that she and her classmates were all shaken.
“Right now we’re scared and confused,” she told us.
White House monitoring Nashville school shooting
The White House issued a statement stating that it was monitoring the shooting.
The statement read, “The President and his team are monitoring the news out of Nashville.” “As details unfold, the White House offers its heartfelt thoughts and prayers to those impacted by this senseless tragedy and thank the brave first responders responding to the incident.”
Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee expressed condolences to the victims and the community.
“I’ve been briefed on the incident at Antioch High School and am grateful for law enforcement & first responders who responded quickly and continue to investigate,” Lee wrote in an email.
“As we await more information, I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families & the school community.”
School official describes safety measures at Antioch High
Antioch High has multiple safety measures in place, according to Battle, including school resource officers, a secured vestibule at the entrance, and cameras equipped with weapon detection software.
Battle stated that Antioch High School will be closed for the remainder of the week “to allow time for students and staff to grieve” in the aftermath of the shooting, and the school district is arranging grief counseling.
The director stated that Wednesday’s assault is “deeply personal” to her, as she recalls an accidental shooting that killed a 13-year-old boy in 1994 while she was attending John Trotwood Moore Middle School in Nashville.
Battle also thanked the school staff for responding quickly in the aftermath of the shooting.
“Their actions were heroic on a dark day for our school community,” she told reporters.
Echoes of shootings at Covenant, Waffle House, Burnette Chapel
The shooting shocked the Nashville community on a cold, clear morning nearly two years after three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members were killed at The Covenant School in Nashville. Police eventually shot and killed the shooter.
This is not the first time a shooting has occurred in this section of Antioch.
Four people were killed and several others were injured in a mass shooting at a Waffle House on Murfreesboro Pike in 2018.
A mass shooting occurred at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ on Pin Hook Road in 2017, killing one and injuring six others. Both locations are about a mile from Antioch High.
Voices For A Safer Tennessee, a nonprofit organization founded in the aftermath of the Covenant School shooting, has advocated for gun reform in Tennessee.
Despite a special legislative session on gun control and mental health in August 2023, Tennessee lawmakers have yet to pass meaningful gun reform.
Voices for a Safer “Tennessee is devastated to learn about the shooting inside the Antioch High School cafeteria today,” according to a statement released Thursday. “Our hearts are broken for the students, families, and staff affected by this tragedy.
Schools should be safe environments in which children can learn and grow without fear of violence. We also support the families of mass shooting victims and survivors, who are constantly retraumatized as news of another shooting breaks.”
