2 dead in Antioch high school shooting, Nashville police say

A 17-year-old man armed with a handgun opened fire in a Nashville high school cafeteria on Wednesday, shooting a female student and wounding another student before killing himself, police said.

Don Aaron, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, said the injured student was shot in the arm at Antioch High School, about 20 miles southeast of downtown Nashville. , and was treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. A student was also treated for what Mr. Aaron said was a facial injury, although not caused by gunshots.

The gunman fired multiple shots into the school cafeteria just after 11 a.m., and 911 was called within two minutes of the first shot, Mr. Aaron said. He did not provide additional details about the shooter or the victims. Officials say they don’t know a motive for the shooting.

One student, who gave his first name only as Ahmad, told Nashville television station WSMV that he was in the cafeteria when the gunfire went off. He and his friend hid behind a trash can before making their way to the soccer field as they passed gunshot victims and blood on the ground.

“I wish I could save them,” he said. “I feel so much pain and sadness and depression knowing that I can’t do anything to help them, to see them shot in front of my face like that.”

Metro Nashville Public Schools said the high school will be closed at noon local time. The officials set up a meeting place for the parents.

“I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families and the school community,” said Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, adding in a social media post that he was informed what happened is his.

In Nashville, the trauma of the 2023 shooting at Covenant School, the deadliest school shooting in state history, continues. A former student broke into the grounds of a private school, killing three 9-year-old students and three staff members before police shot and killed the assailant.

But even after thousands of protesters filled the State Capitol, with some parents of the surviving students pleading for stricter gun laws, most Republicans in the Tennessee Assembly have not agreed to change the law.

“Schools should be safe places where children can learn and grow without fear of violence,” Voices for a Safer Tennessee, an organization formed after the Covenant School shooting to push for gun restrictions, said in a statement. in a statement.

In 2024, over the opposition of parents and many Democratic lawmakers in Nashville, lawmakers approved a law allowing teachers to carry concealed handguns.

There was support for increased staffing resources: the Metro Council voted in December to approve $3.9 million in funding, though staffing shortages prevented most of those these schools will not hire employees. Mr. Aaron, the police spokesman, said two student officers were on campus but were not near the shooter when the shooting began. By the time they arrived, the shooting had ended.

Charlane Oliver, the state senator who represents the Antioch High School district, said in a statement that she was “heartbroken by the devastating shooting.”

“As a mother and representative of this community, I feel sorry for the families, students and staff who are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” she said. “No child should feel unsafe at school, and no family should have to deal with the grief of such a senseless loss.”