Head of Christian School Praised for Going ‘Straight for the Shooter’ During Mass Shooting

Katherine Koonce is seen in an undated selfie photo Katherine Koonce's Facebook page via The Epoch Times

The head of the Covenant School who was shot and killed along with five others on Monday was praised for going “straight for the shooter” during the mass shooting incident.

Nashville City Councilman Russ Pulley revealed that Katherine Koonce was in a meeting when shooter Audrey Hale, 28, entered the building and started firing at around 10:13 a.m. In the shooting, Koonce, three 9-year-old children, and two other adults were killed by Haley, who was shot dead minutes later by responding Nashville Police officers.

“It is my understanding from a witness at the school that Katherine Koonce was on a Zoom call when she heard the first shot. She immediately ended the call, got up and headed straight for the shooter,” Pulley, a former FBI special agent, told Fox News on Tuesday evening.

“She did what principals and headmasters do; she protected her children,” Pulley said. “In addition, she prepared the school by seeking advanced-level active-shooter training, and from witnesses at the scene, this protocol—details of which I cannot provide—saved countless lives.”

Nashville Police Chief John Drake, meanwhile, told reporters that Koonce appeared to have confronted the shooter, noting that she was found in a hallway by herself.

“There was a confrontation, I’m sure ... you can tell the way she was lying in the hallway,” Drake said.

Other than Koonce, the two adults who were slain were identified as custodian Mike Hill, who was killed when Hale fired into the locked glass doors to enter the school, Drake said. Cynthia Peak, a 61-year-old substitute teacher, was also killed, officials said.

Tim Dunavant, a pastor at Hartsville First United Methodist Church who hired Hill, suggested that Hill also may have attempted to stop the shooter.

Officials have identified the suspect in Monday's Nashville Christian school shooting incident as 28-year-old Audrey Hale as Nashville Police released surveillance footage, seen above, on March 28, 2023. Nashville Police Department

“I don’t know the details yet. But I have a feeling, when it all comes out, Mike’s sacrifice saved lives. I have nothing factual to base that upon. I just know what kind of guy he was. And I know he’s the kind of guy that would do that,” he said Monday.

Other Details

Drake on Tuesday said that Hale, who police said is a biological female who used transgender pronouns, did not target specific victims. She, however, did attack “this school, this church building,” police spokesperson Don Aaron said at a news conference Tuesday.

Hale was under a doctor’s care for an undisclosed emotional disorder and was not known to police before the attack, Drake said. If police had been told that Hale was suicidal or homicidal, “then we would have tried to get those weapons,” Drake said. “But as it stands, we had absolutely no idea who this person was or if [Hale] even existed.”

Hale legally bought seven firearms from five local gun stores, Drake said. Three of them were used in Monday’s shooting. Police spokesperson Brooke Reese said Hale bought the guns between October 2020 and June 2022.

Hale’s parents believed their child had sold one gun and did not own any others, Drake said, adding that Hale “had been hiding several weapons within the house.” Drake, at Tuesday’s news conference, described “several different writings by Hale” that mention other locations and The Covenant School.

Police have released videos of the shooting, including edited surveillance footage that shows the shooter’s car driving up to the school, glass doors being shot out, and the shooter ducking through one of them. Additional video from Officer Rex Engelbert’s bodycam shows a woman meeting police outside as they arrive and telling them that all the children were locked down, “but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are.”