A 17-year-old male student injured one student and killed another before turning the gun on himself in a cafeteria at a Nashville-area high school on Jan. 22.
Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron said in a news conference that the suspect fired multiple shots in the school’s cafeteria at about 11:09 a.m., wounding two students. One of the victims, described by police as a female, later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“There is no danger at the school,” Aaron said. He said a police SWAT team cleared the building, identified the shooter as a 17-year-old African American male, and concluded that the suspect died by self-inflicted gunshot.
Aaron further revealed that the deceased female victim was transported to Vanderbilt and did not survive. Another student, a 17-year-old male, was shot in the arm and has since been released from the hospital, Police Chief John Drake said at a second news conference. He added that a fourth student sustained facial injuries that resulted from a fall, not from being shot.
“There were two [school resource officers] in the building. They were not in the immediate vicinity of the cafeteria when this happened,” Aaron said. “By the time the [school resource officers] got down there, the shooting had stopped and the shooter had shot himself.”
School buses were sent to transport students to a nearby family assistance center, where parents could reunite with their children. Aaron noted that vehicles in the parking lots would not be released immediately to preserve the scene for investigators.
Investigators do not have further details on the origin of the firearm but intend to explore it as the inquiry continues.
“All of those questions will be the topic when the homicide unit delve into it,” Aaron stated. He said law enforcement would also look into potential security measures on campus and referred questions about any metal detectors to the school system.
Police later identified the 17-year-old shooter as Solomon Henderson, and the 16-year-old fatally wounded victim was identified as Josselin Corea Escalante.
Investigators are gathering evidence and speaking with witnesses as the police department’s homicide unit leads the investigation.
The motive behind the shooting is not yet known, and law enforcement officials have not speculated on a possible reason for the incident.
When asked about a possible manifesto and videos allegedly related to the shooter and shooting circulating on social media, police said they were still investigating the material.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating.
