Three 9-year-old students and three employees of The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee passed away on Monday (March 27) in a horrific school shooting. Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak (61), janitor Mike Hill (61), and Head of School Katherine Koonce (60), and students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney were identified as the victims killed in the attack.
View this post on Instagram
According to the San Diego Union Tribune, “Surveillance video shows a time stamp of 10:11am when the attacker shot out the doors.” Police received the call about a shooter on campus at 10:13am and dispatch records show that police arrived on campus just before 10:22am. Within two minutes, the suspect was found and shot. The police officers who rushed in the school, and shot them, have been hailed as heroes. Their names are Rex Engelberg, a four-year member of Metro Police, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran of the police force.
View this post on Instagram
Now, as more details of the events have come to light, Koonce, the Head of School, is now being hailed a hero as well.
A reporter for Fox Nashville, Amanda Chin, revealed that during a call with Council Member Russ Pulley, she found out that Koonce was on a Zoom call when she heard gun shots. She immediately ended the meeting and “headed towards the shooter.”
Just got off the phone with Council Member Russ Pulley.
He tells me one of the victims and the Head of Schools, Katherine Koonce, was on a Zoom call and when Koonce heard the shots, she abruptly ended the meeting and left the office, and headed toward the shooter. @FOXNashville
— Amanda Chin (@amandachintv) March 29, 2023
Chief of Police John Drake said during a press conference, “I did see the head school person and she was in the hallway by the office. She was in the hallway by herself. There was a confrontation I’m sure. You can tell the way she was laying in the hallway.”
Security consultant Brink Fidler told CNN that all the victims were in an “open area or hallway” when they were targeted.