A Nashville high school student was shot dead and two other were wounded after a crazed ROTC cadet opened fire after carrying a handgun into school on Wednesday.
Gunfire erupted just after 11 a.m. Wednesday at Antioch High School – about 45 minutes southeast of downtown Nashville – when 17-year-old Solomon Henderson “confronted” the victim before firing multiple shots and killing her.
Henderson died after turning his handgun on himself, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department confirmed to reporters shortly after.
Police have identified the shooter as Solomon Henderson, 17. WSMV via Metro Nashville PDThe victim was identified as Josselin Corea Escalante, just 16 years old.
One other student was hit in the arm and was taken to the hospital, while another suffered a face injury that wasn’t from the gun.
Police say Henderson rode the bus to Antioch High School Wednesday morning, then slipped into the bathroom and came out with a handgun.
He then went into the cafeteria, where he opened fire and killed Escalante after accosting her.
Footage from inside the cafeteria captured the final gunshots as students and cafeteria workers cowered for cover.
The victim was identified as Josselin Corea Escalante, just 16 years old. News Channel 5 Nashville
Two other students also suffered wounds because of the incident. Antioch High SchoolThe motive behind the shooting remains unclear, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters, adding that investigators were combing through Henderson’s online footprint.
Henderson was a “smart person, top of the class, and was quiet and to himself,” a classmate told News 2, adding that he participated in the school’s ROTC program.
Chief Drake added that there had been a “prior incident” involving Henderson, but didn’t clarify what it had to do with.
It also remains unclear whether Escalante was targeted in the attack.
There were two school resource officers in the building when the shots broke out, but by the time they reached the cafeteria Henderson had killed himself.
One local pastor wrote on social media how the gunman “shot himself in the head right in front of my daughter.”
The school searches students but doesn’t have metal detectors.
The school is roughly 10 miles southeast of the city’s downtown.
Investigators haven’t determined a clear motive of the shooter. Metro Nashville PDThe 2,000-student school is in a Nashville neighborhood perched about 10 miles southeast of the city’s downtown.
School officials asked parents to pick up their kids at a nearby hospital, where they were busing the teens after cops cleared them.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to the scene, but local cops are running the investigation and have not asked the FBI for help.
With Post wires
