Shooter ‘Clearly’ Tried to Enter Barricaded Classrooms at Nashville Christian School

Shooting training likely saved many lives

Nashville Police Department officers rush towards a shooter in The Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tenn., on March 28, 2023. Nashville Police Department via The Epoch Times

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The Nashville Christian school shooter “clearly” attempted to enter classrooms that were barricaded, the man who led a school shooting training with teachers and staff at The Covenant School last year told The Epoch Times on Wednesday.

Brink Fidler is president of Defend Systems, a Nashville active shooter training company that contracted with the school for training sessions. He said on Wednesday he had been at the school all day and did a walkthrough with homicide detectives to answer some questions and gain insight.

“[The shooter] did not get into a single room—and that was not for lack of effort,” he said. “The only victims she got to were in open areas. So, they did exactly what they needed to do in that moment without hesitation and they are responsible for getting those children that survived back to their families.”

Fidler served nearly two decades in law enforcement in Nashville before retiring as Director of the Drug Task Force and founding Defend Systems. In addition to his law enforcement roles, he also served as an adjunct firearms and tactics instructor.

Covenant Trained for a Moment That Came

“This one hits home because they are a client of ours,” he said. “We study these events for a living. This one is vastly different—because I knew these people—so we’re just trying to take it all in.”

In 2022, Defend Systems held a “pretty intense” training with school staff. Fidler and his staff conducted an active shooter mitigation course at the school in January 2022 and in March 2022 did a medical intervention session with them.

He said students were not present during the trainings, as they were meant specifically for staff, adding he was not a fan of children going through the trainings, even as it is requested sometimes.

The flag atop the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville flew at half-staff Wednesday, two days after six were killed at The Covenant School in a shooting. Chase Smith/The Epoch Times

Fidler said while the training didn’t have an impact on those lost—the swift action of faculty and staff under immense pressure saved many more lives from being lost.

“This is about the teachers and their ability to perform that day,” he said. “The training is important, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t here on Monday. They were here. Their ability to perform under that amount of stress when somebody is trying to murder them and their children—and their ability to execute flawlessly and keep their kids safe and return them to their family—that’s the story here.”

The Training

Fidler said Defend Systems teaches three key techniques in the event of an active shooter—to evade, to fortify, and lockdown—in that order.

The company teaches them how to get away safely and evade the shooter if possible based on the location of the shooter. He said on Monday, some classes were able to do that based on the location of the shooter.

The second technique is to fortify. They walk staff through what to do while teachers are fortified in a room and how to defend themselves and the children if a shooter makes it to the door.

They also do trauma medical and pre-hospital medical training, which Covenant took part in.

“This school took that very seriously,” he said. “They had purchased multiple trauma kits and had them available in those classrooms. I was able to see those kits actually out and ready to be used when I did the walkthrough. They did it right. I can’t tell you how proud I am of these people to be able to do that in that moment—because it is very difficult.”

Personal Connections

Responding to a question about reports that headmaster Katherine Koonce confronted the shooter in a hallway and was killed—he said he believed she did all she could to protect her staff and students.

“We only teach the physical portion as a last resort, and that’s if you’re fortified, we don’t teach you to go after the shooter unless you have no other choice,” he said. “Unless the teacher breaches the room that you’re in or you’re stuck in the hall and the shooter is around the corner—we do give them tools to deal with that.”

Fidler said Koonce was a personal friend of his, and knowing her personality “she was probably going to move to that threat regardless of whether or not I told her to do that.”

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

He said he believed Koonce heard the fire alarm go off while in her office and left to check on what was happening before encountering and engaging the shooter.

“She just had that personality where she is going to go to the frontline, armed or not,” he said. “I know when that alarm went off, she left her desk to go find out what was going on. She did not lockdown in her office and keep herself safe and all that—she went to go check on her staff and her kids because that’s [the kind] of person she was.”

The Fire Alarm Question

While Metro Nashville police are still investigating if the fire alarm went off as a result of school staff or a student pulling it, or whether the shooter pulled it, Fidler gave another possibility.

Fidler said part of training at the end of the course is to hold a live-fire exercise in the building with real guns and real ammunition, not blanks. He said to use real bullets they have a “bullet trap.”

“So, I’ve shot real guns in buildings in several places, I do it all the time,” he said. “Depending on where you are, the smoke from your weapon can very quickly set off the fire alarm system.”

He said it is likely that could have happened because it’s happened to him in the past—but the exact reason behind the alarm going off is still under investigation.