NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A capturing in a Nashville highschool cafeteria Wednesday left a feminine pupil lifeless and one other pupil wounded, almost two years after one other lethal college capturing within the metropolis that ignited an emotional debate about gun management in Tennessee.

The 17-year-old shooter, who was additionally a pupil at Antioch Excessive College, later shot and killed himself with a handgun, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron stated throughout a information convention. Police recognized him as Solomon Henderson.

Police Chief John Drake stated the shooter “confronted” pupil Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, within the cafeteria and opened hearth, killing her.

The wounded pupil was grazed by a bullet. He was handled and launched from the hospital, Drake stated. One other pupil was taken to a hospital for therapy of a facial harm that occurred throughout a fall, Aaron stated.

Metro Nashville Police, federal and state companies are inspecting “very regarding on-line writings and social media posts related to 17-year-old Solomon Henderson” as they work to ascertain a motive, police stated in a press release Wednesday night.

Investigators at this level haven’t established a connection between Henderson and the victims, and police stated the gunfire could have been random, based on the assertion.

Two college useful resource officers have been within the constructing when the capturing occurred round 11 a.m., Aaron stated. They weren’t within the rapid neighborhood of the cafeteria and by the point they received down there the capturing was over and the gunman had killed himself, Aaron stated.

The college has about 2,000 college students and is in Antioch, a neighborhood about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of downtown Nashville.

At a household security heart near a hospital, officers helped shocked dad and mom reunite with their kids.

Dajuan Bernard was ready at a Mapco service station to reunite along with his son, a tenth grader, who was being held within the auditorium with different college students Wednesday afternoon. He first heard of the capturing from his son, who “was slightly startled,” Bernard stated. His son was upstairs from the cafeteria however stated he heard the gunfire.

“He was OK and let me know that all the pieces was OK,” Bernard stated.

“This world is so loopy, it may occur wherever,” he stated. “We’ve simply received to guard the children, and lift the children proper to stop them from even doing this. That’s the toughest half.”

Fonda Abner stated her granddaughter had known as her a few instances however that she solely heard commotion and thought it was a pocket dial. They spoke briefly earlier than being minimize off.

“It’s nerve-racking ready out right here,” Abner stated.

United Household Fellowship, a church in Antioch, was internet hosting a vigil Wednesday night time “for anybody locally who wants an area to hope, course of, and discover consolation,” the church stated on Fb.

Adrienne Battle, superintendent of Nashville faculties, stated earlier Wednesday that public faculties have carried out a “vary of security measures,” together with partnerships with police for varsity useful resource officers, safety cameras with weapon-detection software program, shatter-resistant movie for glass, and safety vestibules which might be a barrier between outdoors guests and the primary entrance.

“Sadly, these measures weren’t sufficient to cease this tragedy,” Battle stated.

She stated there are questions on whether or not stationary steel detectors ought to be thought-about.

“Whereas previous analysis has proven they’ve had limitations and unintended penalties, we’ll proceed to discover rising applied sciences and methods to strengthen college security,” Battle stated.

In October, a 16-year-old Antioch Excessive College pupil was arrested after college useful resource officers and college officers found by means of social media that he had taken a gun to highschool the day prior. When he was stopped the next morning, officers discovered a loaded gun in his pants, police stated.

Wednesday’s college capturing comes almost two years after a shooter opened hearth at a separate Nashville non-public elementary college and killed six folks, together with three kids.

The tragedy prompted a monthslong effort amongst tons of of group organizers, households, protesters and others pleading with lawmakers to think about passing gun management measures.

GOP lawmakers within the Republican-dominant state refused to take action. With the Republican supermajority intact after November’s election, it’s unlikely attitudes have modified sufficient to think about any significant payments that will tackle gun management.

As an alternative, lawmakers have been extra open to including extra safety to varsities—together with passing a invoice final yr that will enable some academics and employees to hold hid handguns on public college grounds, and bar dad and mom and different academics from understanding who was armed.

Antioch, a rising and various space of Nashville, has endured different distinguished shootings in recent times. A 2017 deadly capturing at Burnette Chapel Church of Christ killed one girl and wounded seven folks. And in 2018, a shooter killed 4 folks at a Waffle Home.

State Rep. Shaundelle Brooks ran for workplace largely on account of her son’s dying within the Waffle Home capturing and was elected final yr after the Covenant capturing. She stated the Antioch Excessive capturing reinforces the necessity for gun management reforms. “We should do higher,” she stated.

“Ever since I misplaced my son, Akilah, in a mass capturing in 2018, I’ve been preventing to make sure this by no means occurs once more,” the Nashville Democrat stated in a press release. “Right here we’re virtually 7 years later, and our communities are nonetheless being impacted by gun violence.”

Samantha Dickerson had taken her 14-year-old son’s telephone away as a punishment, so when she received a message from his college in regards to the capturing, she had no solution to attain him.

“I used to be nervous,” she stated. “I actually was about to interrupt down.”

After about three hours of ready, she lastly received a name from his English instructor and spoke together with her son.

“Once I heard his voice, I simply broke down and began crying,” she stated.

—Related Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed.

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