A 17-year-old student opened fire Wednesday morning in the school cafeteria. Antioch High Schoolin Nashville, Tennesseekilling a student and wounding another student before committing suicide with the same weapon. The school shooting occurred shortly after 11:00 a.m. (local time), according to the Nashville Metropolitan Police. The school was immediately closed while authorities secured the area and organized the reunification of the students with their families, according to various media outlets such as AP, ABC and The New York Times.
According to the information provided by the authorities, the attack began at 11:09 am, when the young man entered the cafeteria armed with a gun and fired multiple shots. At 11:11 a.m., police received the first emergency call reporting an active shooter at the school, located in the Antioch neighborhood, about 16 miles southeast of downtown Nashville.
The police spokesperson, Don Aaron, reported that at the time of the attack there were two school resource officers in the building, but neither were in the vicinity of the cafeteria. By the time they arrived, the shooting had already ended and the attacker had shot himself.
A student died at the scene after being shot, authorities confirmed. Another student suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and is in stable condition at the hospital. Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Additionally, a third student was taken to Vanderbilt Pediatrics with an eye injury, although it is reported that this was not caused by a gunshot, according to reports from ABCNews.
The authorities closed the school and implemented a safety protocol for students and their families. Metro Nashville Public Schools reported that the attacker no longer posed a threat and that the students would be moved to a reunification site on the street 3754 Murfreesboro Pike. The police also blocked Hobson Pike and Murfreesboro Pike to control traffic in the area, reported ABCNews.
State and federal agencies, such as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Homeland Security Agencycollaborated in the investigation of the incident. However, so far, no motive for the attack has been revealed, media reported.
A student who witnessed the attack, identified only as Ahmadhe told the station WSMV who was in the cafeteria when the shooting started. “My friends and I hid behind trash cans until we could run to the soccer field,” he said. “We passed by the wounded, we saw them on the ground, bleeding. I wish I could have saved them. “I feel a lot of pain, sadness and depression knowing that I couldn’t do anything,” he reported. The New York Times.
The governor Bill Lee spoke about the incident on social networks: “I have been informed about what happened in Antioch High School and I am grateful to the first responders for their quick action. While we wait for more information, I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families and the school community,” he wrote on his X account.
The state senator Charlane Olivera representative of the district where the school is located, expressed her dismay in a statement: “As a mother and representative of this community, my heart is broken by this devastating shooting. No child should feel unsafe at school, and no family should face the pain of such a senseless loss,” he also explained on social media.
This shooting comes amid a debate over gun control in Tennessee. In 2023, the city of nashville was the scene of the deadliest attack on a school in the state’s history, when a former student of The Covenant School He killed three 9-year-old children and three employees before being shot dead by police. After that tragedy, thousands of protesters demanded stricter measures, but the Republican majority in the state legislature opposed any significant changes to gun laws, reported The New York Times.
In 2024, Tennessee passed legislation allowing teachers to carry guns in schools, a move that drew strong criticism from parents and Democratic lawmakers. Although there has been a push to increase school resource officers, staffing shortages have made it difficult to effectively implement them in all schools in the state. According to The New York Timesvote of the Nashville Metropolitan Council Last December it approved a budget of 3.9 million dollars to increase security in schools, but it has not been enough to meet the demand for officers.
