Nashville school shooter legally stockpiled weapons before attack

The killer of three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Tennessee bought numerous firearms in the weeks leading up to the mass shooting, police have revealed.

Drake said he believed those killed at the Covenant school, including three nine-year-olds, were not specifically targeted.

The video prompted many to draw a contrast between the handling of the Nashville shooting and the one last year at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where officers waited more than an hour to confront and kill an intruder who killed 19 children and two teachers.

Drake did not address the matter at the Tuesday briefing.

The friend, Averianna Patton, shared the Instagram exchange with News Channel 5, suggesting police showed a lack of urgency after she alerted them.

The legislation last year only expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers and funded mental health and violence intervention programs.

In Nashville, detectives continued to piece together a motive for the murders by a former student at the school, as a heartbroken community began to grieve with prayer vigils and a growing memorial of flowers and soft toys.

The victims were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged nine; substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; head of school Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61, a custodian.

Their murders were, according to the Gun Violence Archive, the 129th mass shooting in the US this year. The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot or wounded, not counting any attackers.

Separate surveillance footage published on Monday showed Hale arriving in a vehicle, shooting through glass entry doors, then wandering hallways with rifle raised.

A Democratic state legislator, John Ray Clemmons, condemned a loosening of gun laws in 2021, including allowing anyone over 18 to possess and carry weapons without training or a permit.

Flags were ordered to half-staff throughout the state. School leaders asked for privacy.

Koonce had worked at the school for seven years after moving from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The other two adult victims were both employed there.

Scruggs was a third-grade student and the daughter of the Covenant Presbyterian church lead pastor, Chad Scruggs.

Dieckhaus was also a third grader, the Tennessean reported. Her family attended a memorial for the victims on Monday night at Woodmont Christian church. Her older sister, a fifth grader, broke down in tears.