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A Covenant school church pastor’s daughter, Hallie Scruggs, was identified as one of the six people killed alongside the shooter in the Nashville school shooting.
Early Monday morning, On March 27, 2023, Audrey Hale barged through the Covenant school doors and killed three children and three staff members before being shot dead by the responding officers at the scene. Hale was a 28-year-old transgender individual and a former student at Covenant Elementary School.
Hours after the incident, CBS News reported that 9-year-old Hallie Scruggs, the youngest daughter of the senior pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Chad Scruggs, was among the three children killed in the school shooting.
Hallie Scruggs was the victim of the 129th mass shooting in 2023
In the 129th mass shooting to strike the country this year, Hallie Scruggs was killed alongside nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney. A mass shooter armed with two assault-style rifles and a 9-millimeter pistol drove to Covenant School, a Christian elementary school in Nashville, and opened fire at the scene.
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Three staff members, Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher, Michael Hill, a custodian, and Katherine Koonce, the principal of Covenant school were also killed in the shooting.
Authorities said that the suspect, who was armed with several rounds of ammunition, intended to cause more harm before being killed by responding officers at the scene. According to multiple reports, the Nashville school shooting suspect, Audrey Hale, had recently come out as transgender and went by the name “Aiden” on social media.
Police, who are still exploring the circumstances behind the targeted attack, said that they are investigating if the gender identity of the suspect was a potential motive for the shooting, as per The Telegraph.
Hours after the shooting incident that killed six individuals, including Hallie Scruggs, President Joe Biden addressed the "heartbreaking" news during the Small Business Administration's Women's Business Summit. He thanked the Nashville officers for their swift response, preventing further bloodshed at the scene.
He added:
"It's sick. We're still gathering the facts of what happened and why and we do know that as of now, there are a number of people who did not make it, including children. It's heartbreaking. A family's worst nightmare."
Biden also condemned the endemic gun violence that is “ripping our communities apart,” and said that congress should pass a bill that bans carrying assault weapons in the country.
He said:
"We have to do more to stop gun violence. It's ripping our communities apart. Ripping the soul of this nation, we have to do more to protect our schools so that they aren't turned into prisons. You know, the shooter in this situation reportedly had two assault weapons and a pistol — two AK-47s, so I called on Congress again to pass my assault weapons ban. It's about time that we begin to make some more progress."
The incident comes days after a student from Lamar High School in Arlington, Texas, shot and killed a classmate while injuring another outside the campus on Monday, March 20, 2023.
