Student fatally shoots 1 student, wounds another at Nashville high school, police say
By Chris Boyette and Caroll Alvarado
(CNN) — A female student has died and another student was wounded in a shooting Wednesday morning at Antioch High School in Nashville, a police spokesman said.
The female student was killed when a 17-year-old student armed with a pistol fired multiple shots in a school cafeteria at 11:09 a.m., according to Metro Nashville Police.
Authorities identified the shooter as Solomon Henderson, who killed himself after shooting his schoolmates, police said.
A male student victim had what was described as a graze wound to the arm and was treated and released, police said. Another male student sustained a facial injury but was not shot. Police did not name those victims.
A spokesperson for Vanderbilt University Medical Center referred questions to police.
Wednesday’s tragedy was the first school shooting to occur in the US this year, based on CNN’s school shooting database parameters. There were 83 incidents in 2024, the most of any year CNN has tracked.
Earlier in Nashville, the police SWAT team had cleared the building, police spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference.
The director for Metro Nashville Public Schools, the district for Antioch High School, called it “a heartbreaking day” for the school community.
“My heart goes out to the families of our students as they face unimaginable loss. I want to thank the school staff who quickly and heroically followed emergency protocols, potentially preventing further harm, as well as the Metro Nashville Police Department and Nashville Fire Department for their swift and urgent response,” Adrienne Battle said in a statement.
The district said it was making counselors available to students. The school will be closed for the rest of the week, the district said.
“Antioch families, MNPS social workers and guidance counselors will be available to support you and your student,” the school district said.
Antioch High School is home to approximately 2,000 students in grades 9 through 12, according to its website. The school is located in Nashville’s Antioch neighborhood, about 10 miles southeast of downtown.
Two student resource officers, known as SROs, were in the school at the time of the shooting, but the incident was over by the time they got to the scene, Aaron said.
“They were not in the immediate vicinity of the cafeteria … By the time the SROs got down there, the shooting had stopped, and the shooter had shot himself,” he said.
The Nashville Fire Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Tennessee Homeland Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded.
Democratic Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones, whose district includes parts of Nashville and was a vocal proponent of new gun control laws following the shooting deaths of three students and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023, said Wednesday no child should be scared “because of the omnipresent threat of gun violence.”
“The fear reverberating around the Antioch and Nashville communities today is a chilling reminder of the human cost of political inaction and the senseless tragedy of gun violence perpetuated by leaders who have prioritized firearms and the profits of the gun industry over the lives of our students,” Jones said.
Jones, was one of two Black lawmakers expelled then swiftly reinstated after calling for gun control reform on the House floor in 2023.
CNN’s Dalia Faheid, Rebekah Riess, Alex Leeds Matthews and Ryan Young contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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