US: 6 killed in a school shooting, shooter dead

In USA, a heavily armed former student killed three young children and three staff in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack at a private elementary school in Nashville on Monday, before being shot dead by police.Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as Audrey Hale, 28, who the officer later said identified as transgender. Hale left behind a manifesto, had maps of the school detailing surveillance and entry-exit points, and was "prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement," the police chief told reporters. Nashville Police Chief John Drake said their preliminary investigation into the shooting indicated that it was a targeted attack. The probe suggested that the shooter was at one time a student at the school, although Drake did not know exactly when they may have attended.

Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, drove this Honda Fit to the Covenant Church/school campus this morning and parked. MNPD detectives searched it and found additional material written by Hale. pic.twitter.com/ftGX74ecKr

— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) March 28, 2023

There was no official word on the shooter`s motivation. School shootings have become tragically commonplace in the US. Just a few days ago, a 17-year-old was fatally shot after he had shot and wounded two members of the administrative staff of a Denver school. Sandy Hook Promise, an organization founded and run by family members of the victims of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut, called gun violence and school shootings "a uniquely American epidemic".