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6 victims of the Nashville school shooting pictured

Wednesday March 29, 2023 – The three children and three adults shot and killed at The Covenant School in Nashville have been identified.

The students killed on Monday, March 27, were all nine  years old. They were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney.

The three adults killed were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61, Mike Hill, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60.

“Our community is heartbroken,” the Covenant School said in a statement. “We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff, and beginning the process of healing.”⁠

Mike Hill, 61, was a custodian at the school and had worked there for more than 13 years, says a friend.⁠

Cynthia Peak, 61⁠, was a substitute teacher at the school, according to Nashville authorities.⁠

Katherine Koonce, 60⁠, was the head of the Covenant School, according to its website.

The shooter, who the police identified as Audrey E. Hale, had entered the building by firing through a side door, armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun, according to John Drake, the chief of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, and went to the second floor, firing shots before being killed by the police. Chief Drake said that the assailant was “at one point a student” at the school.

Surveillance video released by the police on Monday night showed the shooter drive up to the school in what the police described as a Honda Fit. In the clip, two sets of glass doors shatter from bullets before entering the building through the broken glass.

The shooter, who was born female, began identifying as male in recent months.