Security expert: Police did right thing by entering right away in Nashville school shooting
CHICAGO (CBS) -- There was heartache and pain in Nashville, Tennessee Monday night as the community dealt with the latest school shooting in this country.
A security expert on Monday said police did the right thing by going in right away.
Police said a 28-year-old suspect opened fire at the Covenant School in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville Monday morning – killing three children and three adults.
Authorities have identified the victims as 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, 61-year-old Cynthia Peak, 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, and 61-year-old Mike Hill. All three adults worked at the school. Police identified the shooter as Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old woman from Nashville, who officials said was armed with at least two assault weapons and a handgun.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, the side entrance to the private school showed broken glass out front. Police said the shooter shot through a door to gain entry into the building – and once inside, Hale is accused of going on a shooting rampage for 14 minutes.
Students, teachers, and anyone else in the school hid as gunshots filled the hallways.
"My dad just woke me up this morning and told me that my mom said there was a shooter at the school, and then I texted her, and I said just like, what was going on?" said Avery Myrick, the daughter of a pre-K teacher at the school. "She said she was hiding in the closet, and that there was shooting all over, and that they had potentially tried to get into her room - and just that she like loved us, and that they could just hear her shooting all over the school."
Hale was shot and killed by police – who did not hesitate to go inside.
"We would never wait to make entry and to go in and to stop a threat, especially when it deals with our children," said Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake.
Police in Uvalde, Texas were widely criticized for not entering Robb Elementary School during a massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers there in May of last year.
"If a police officer is reluctant to go in on an active assailant scenario, they're in the wrong line of work," said Matt Doherty.
Doherty is a former Secret Service agent at the National Threat Assessment Center, and currently works as a workforce risk management director.
"We've seen in the past where hesitancy is not the best practice," Doherty said. "The best practice is to immediately go in - and not only that, they have to bypass any injured people because the goal is to negate that shooter."
The weight of the investigation was visible from the faces of law enforcement, while the fear was very clear as parents were finally reunited with their children late Monday.
"I was hoping this day would never, ever come here in this city," Drake said.
Police went to the shooter's home, and said the shooter had a manifesto and did purchase the assault weapons legally.
Investigators interviewed the suspect's father.
"In this case, let's see if the father was responsible as far as communicating to law enforcement or not," Doherty said. "I'll be very curious to what he says."
Doherty said while downright traumatic, he believes heroic stories of teachers saving and protecting children will be revealed in the days to come.