Teenage gunman kills female student and himself at US high school
The school has about 2,000 students and is located in a neighbourhood of Nashville about 10 miles south-east of the city centre.
A female student was killed and another student was wounded on Wednesday in a shooting in a US high school cafeteria, police said.
The 17-year-old shooter, who was also a student at Antioch High School in Nashville, later shot and killed himself with a handgun, Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said during a news conference.
Police identified him as Solomon Henderson.
Police identified her as Josselin Corea Escalante.
Mr Drake said police are looking into a motive and whether the students who were shot were targeted.
The male student who was wounded suffered a graze, and was treated and released from the hospital, Mr Drake said.
Another student was taken to a hospital for treatment of a facial injury that happened during a fall, Mr Aaron said.
There were two school resource officers in the building when the shooting happened on Wednesday morning, Mr Aaron said.
The school has about 2,000 students and is located in Antioch, a neighbourhood about 10 miles (16 kilometres) south-east of downtown Nashville.
At a family safety centre close to a hospital, officials were helping shocked parents to reunite with their children.
Dajuan Bernard was waiting at a Mapco service station to reunite with his son, who was being held in the auditorium with other students on Wednesday afternoon.
He first heard of the shooting from his son who “was a little startled”, Mr Bernard said. His son was upstairs from the cafeteria but said he heard the gunfire.
“He was OK and let me know that everything was OK,” Mr Bernard said.
“We’ve just got to protect the kids, and raise the kids right to prevent them from even doing this. That’s the hardest part.”
Fonda Abner, whose granddaughter is a student at the school, said Antioch High does not have metal detectors that would alert officials to the presence of a gun.
She said her granddaughter had called her a couple of times but that she only heard commotion and thought it was a pocket dial. They spoke briefly before being cut off.
“It’s nerve-wracking waiting out here,” Ms Abner said.
Adrienne Battle, superintendent of Nashville schools, said public schools have implemented a “range of safety measures”, including partnerships with police for school resource officers, security cameras with weapon-detection software, shatter-resistant film for glass, and security vestibules that are a barrier between outside visitors and the main entrance.
She noted that there are questions about whether stationary metal detectors should be considered.
“While past research has shown they have had limitations and unintended consequences, we will continue to explore emerging technologies and strategies to strengthen school safety,” Ms Battle said.
Wednesday’s school shooting comes nearly two years after a shooter opened fire at a separate Nashville private elementary school and killed six people, including three children.
The tragedy prompted a months-long effort among hundreds of community organisers, families, protesters and many more pleading with legislators to consider passing gun control measures in response to the shooting.
However, in a Republican-dominant state, legislators refused to do so.
Instead, legislators have been more open to adding more security to schools — including passing a bill last year that would allow some teachers and staff to carry concealed handguns on public school grounds, and bar parents and other teachers from knowing who was armed.
Antioch has endured other prominent shootings in recent years.
A 2017 fatal shooting at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ killed one woman and wounded seven people.
And in 2018, a shooter killed four people at a Waffle House.
