Nashville shooting suspect Audrey Hale had purchased seven firearms legally from five different stores prior to yesterday's tragedy, says Nashville police chief John Drake.

Police have spoken to Hale's family, Drake says, who told authorities Hale had been in treatment for an "emotional disorder".

"Her parents felt she should not own weapons," Drake says. "She had been hiding several weapons within the house."

Hale was not known to police ahead of the attack.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The press conference with Nashville officials has just begun.

Police public affairs director Don Aaron says off the top that there is no current evidence to suggest the shooter targeted any of the individual victims.

"This school, this church building was a target," he says.

We are hearing from the police in Nashville now as they are giving an update to media on the shooting.

Nomia Iqbal
BBC News, Nashville, Tennessee

As police piece together what happened, the focus has once again turned on the politics of guns in America and who has the right to access them.

Gun-control advocates have criticised Andy Ogles, the Republican who represents the school’s district, over a picture they claim he used on his family's Christmas card last year. The image, which has 17.2 million views on Twitter, shows Mr Ogles and his family, including young children, carrying assault rifles.

After the school shooting yesterday, he offered thoughts and prayers for the victims in a written statement. However, he did not mention anything about gun control in his message.

While President Biden and most Democrats want to ban assault rifles, the type used in this shooting, many Republicans say a ban would be a direct infringement on their Second Amendment constitutional right to bear arms.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Another school shooting, and another call from US President Joe Biden for Congress to pass federal legislation banning military-style assault weapons.

Back when he was in the US Senate, Biden was one of the driving forces behind a 1994 law that imposed limits on certain semi-automatic long-barrel rifles and their high-capacity detachable magazines.

But that legislation expired in 2004.

Efforts to reimpose the ban, most recently pushed by Biden in March 2021 after several high-profile mass shootings, have proven fruitless.

Congress did reach a bipartisan agreement to enact new background checks for young gun purchasers and encourage red-flag laws to prevent high-risk individuals from owning firearms in June 2022, following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

That law - the first new federal gun-safety legislation in 30 years - was limited in scope, however.

Now, with Republican control of the House of Representatives, chances of passing new gun-control legislation are further diminished.

Meanwhile, federal courts – including the US Supreme Court – have been issuing a steady stream of decisions that protect broad gun rights.

The spate of school shootings in America continues, with Nashville added to the list of communities devastated by violence. But it is unlikely any new laws will come as a result.

Read more here.

Gem O'Reilly
Live reporter

Medical journals across the US have published data over the last few years showing that guns are killing more people under 24 than cars nationwide.

President Joe Biden has also claimed in the past, external that more young people are dying from guns than cars.

Vox has reported on, external this data, which states that at some point in the late 2010s, deaths by firearm exceeded deaths by car for young people.

The New England Journal of Medicine research, external says motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of injury-related death for people under the age of 24 for more than 60 years.

"Beginning in 2017, however, firearm-related injuries took their place to become the most common cause of death from injury," it says.

The journal explains this change occurred because of both the rising number of firearm-related deaths and the nearly-continuous reduction in deaths from motor vehicle crashes.

As the sun set over Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, people gathered there to pray, worship and mourn the events that had happened earlier that day at Covenant.

Through tears and a crackling voice, a senior minister there reflected on the life of Evelyn Dieckhaus, one of the three children who died, The Tennessean reported, external.

Evelyn’s sister, seated in the pews, cried as she uttered out, "I don’t want to be an only child."

By 18:30 local time (24:30 GMT), hundreds more had gathered at another church hosting a vigil.

"We're here with bruises on our hearts because parents aren't supposed to bury their children," Senior Pastor Scott Sauls said. "Families are not supposed to lose their loved ones 20 or 30 years before their time. It's not supposed to happen."

Multiple vigils were planned throughout the city on Monday, with more scheduled on Tuesday.

Police in Nashville have released footage from body-worn cameras today but late last night they released video showing the first moments of the shooting - and how the attacker was able to get inside the school.

CCTV cameras from inside the building show Audrey Hale shooting at the front doors and then climbing through the shattered glass planes to gain entry.

The shooter is wearing a red cap, camouflage trousers and what looks to be a protective vest.

Hale is carrying an assault-style rifle in one hand, with a second, similar weapon also visible hanging from the left hip.

The 28-year-old shooter accused of killing six people at the Convenant School was armed with two "assault weapons" and two pistols, according to police officials.

Although there's a lot of debate over what classifies an "assault weapon", the US Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco (ATF) maintains a list, external of military-grade weapons that has the ability to automatically or semi-automatically fire bullets.

More than 85% of public mass shootings have involved such weapons, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence., external

But despite their increased use in mass shootings, US lawmakers have resisted efforts to ban the semi-automatic weapon.

In recent years lawmakers have faced stiff hurdles to any proposal to ban the weapons and have been unable to pass federal legislation.

But a Supreme Court ruling could soon decide if these bans are constitutional.

Angelica Casas
Reporting from Nashville

You don’t have to know a victim to mourn a mass shooting. When one hits your community, it’s hard not to be impacted.

Green Hills community members and residents from all over Nashville have been stopping by the Covenant School since late last night to leave behind flowers, messages and plush toys for the young victims at a makeshift memorial.

For some, like Mark, who lives in southern Nashville, it’s their first time ever visiting or passing by the school. He wishes it weren’t under these circumstances.

"I’m sad and angry," he told me, looking towards the school, now blocked by police vehicles.

As we just reported the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has released bodycam footage from the shooting at Covenant School.

Alongside it the department has put out photos of the two officers who are shown in the footage shooting at the armed suspect.

They are Michael Collazo and Rex Engelbert.

Image source, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department

Image source, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department

Image source, Nashville Police

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has released bodycam footage of officers encountering the Convenant School shooter.

Warning: The following post contains graphic content which some people may find distressing.

The video - which has been blurred so we do not see the shooter - shows an officer arriving at the scene, arming himself with a rifle from the trunk of his vehicle. Officers unlock a door to enter the building as an alarm in the school blares. The officers sweep the first floor and make their way to the second.

A second camera angle shows officers moving up a staircase as one announces, "We got one down." The officer with the bodycam responds, "Keeping pushing."

They begin jogging down a hallway, passing by a body and backpacks hung neatly on a shelf. Shots are heard in the near distance, and an officer barks order to move toward the gun fire. Officer Engelbert is the first to encounter the shooter, rounding a corner where he sees the shooter firing out an atrium window.

Engelbert fires four shots and the shooter falls to the ground. Two more officers walk toward the fallen assailant with their weapons drawn, and fire four more shots.

They demand the shooter stop moving and to move their hands away from the gun. An officer tosses the shooter’s weapon aside as the shooter lays motionless, arms spread and back on the ground.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper is thanking police for their response to Monday's shooting whilst mourning what he called one of the most difficult days in the city's history.

Police have said officers killed the 28-year-old shooter within 15 minutes of receiving a first call about the incident.

"This is our worst day, but it could have been worse without this brave response," Cooper told CNN on Tuesday. "So we're very grateful for that."

"It seems to me that they really will probably be congratulated on how good they were," the mayor added.

Cooper also told CNN police would share more information about the shooting later on Tuesday, including potentially releasing officers' body camera footage and revealing details about documents recovered at the shooter's home.

Image source, .

Yesterday's shooting at a school in Nashville is the latest in a growing number of mass shootings across the US.

We've looked into some of the numbers behind this.

Even though it is only March, there have already been more than 130 mass shootings across the US so far this year.

There have been more than 600 mass shootings in each of the last three years, according to figures from the Gun Violence Archive, external - a non-profit research database.

The archive defines a mass shooting when four or more people are injured or killed. Figures include shootings in homes and public places.

The deadliest such attack, in Las Vegas in 2017, killed more than 50 people and left 500 wounded. The vast majority of mass shootings, however, leave fewer than 10 people dead.

Read more here

Here's a bit more on some of the victims of yesterday's shooting.

Katherine Koonce, 60, was the head of school at Covenant. "She did so much for those kids," said one mother, who has two children enrolled at Covenant. "And now gave her life protecting them."

Image source, Covenant School

Michael Hill, 61, was a custodian at the school. Tim Dunavant, a pastor at Harstville First United Methodist Church, said he had previously worked at the Covenant and had hired Mr Hill over 13 years ago.

Cynthia Peak, 61, was a substitute teacher working at the school on the day of the attack, police have said.

As we've already mentioned, six people were killed in yesterday's mass school shooting in Nashville, including three young children:

Hallie Scruggs, 9, was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, senior pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, was in the third grade. Her sister, who is two years older, cried during the service according to the Tennessean newspaper, external.

William Kinney, 9, was also a student at the Covenant School.

Officials think the shooter who opened fire at The Covenant School had other intended targets, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said this morning.

He told CBS News that Hale, a 28-year-old from Nashville, may have been considering targeting family members and a local mall as well.

He said during a search of Hale's home, police had found "more maps pertaining to maybe some thinking about some other incidents".

The police chief said other evidence found at the house - including a manifesto and a "booklet" - indicated the shooting was highly planned.

"We have maps that show the entry point into the school, the weapons that were going to be used, the clothing that she was gonna wear, and she had drawn it up, almost like a cartoon character. It was exactly what she had on during this incident," Drake told CBS.

Police have identified the shooter from the Convenant School attack as 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

The shooter, who was killed by officers at the scene, was a former student of the school and had no criminal record.

Late last night, Metropolitan Nashville police chief John Drake told reporters they had found a manifesto belonging to Hale, as well as a detailed drawn map of the school, with entry points.

In CCTV footage from inside the school, Hale is seen wearing what looks like a protective vest and carrying an assault-style rifle in one hand, with a second, similar weapon also visible hanging from the left hip.

"Resentment" may have been a motive, according to the police, who said they had had found more firearms during a search of her home.

Hale was "a biological woman who, on a social media profile, used male pronouns," a police spokesperson has told the Washington Post.

It's just after 08:00 local time in Nashville as we bring you the latest on yesterday's deadly shooting at Covenant School - a private Christian school for students aged three to 11.

Attacker

Police have identified the shooter as 28-year-old Audrey Elizbeth Hale, who was shot and killed by officers during the attack.

Hale was a former student at the school and officers are studying a manifesto and a detailed map of the school, with entry points, that Hale had.

Victims

Three children aged nine and three adult staff members were killed in the shooting.

The children have been named as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney and the adults as school head Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61.

Firearms

The shooter had two "assault-style" weapons and a handgun.

At least two of the weapons were purchased legally and police say they have found more firearms during a search of Hale's home.

Vigils

Overnight vigils have been held in Nashville in honour of the six victims and people have been gathering at a makeshift memorial outside the school building.

Biden's appeal

Since the shooting, US President Joe Biden has renewed calls for gun control legislation - something he's done multiple times since taking office.

Sarah Fowler
Live reporter

Image source, Getty Images

We're restarting our live coverage of the aftermath of Monday's horrific shooting at a private primary school in Nashville. Six people were killed in the attack, including three children and three members of staff.

Police say it was a carefully planned attack by the suspect, a former student who they have identified as Audrey Hale. Hale was shot dead by officers at the scene.

The authorities are still piecing together what they know about Hale - including possible motives.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates on this story.