Teen shooter kills student, then himself at Antioch High School in Nashville, police say
One student is dead and another is wounded after a third student opened fire with a pistol Wednesday at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, police said. The 17-year-old shooter then shot himself and died, according to police.
The shooting happened in the school's cafeteria, Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters during a news briefing. A police SWAT team searched the school and didn't find any additional victims or shooters, Drake said.
"There is no danger at the school," police spokesman Don Aaron said.
The two victims were taken to a hospital, where a female student died and a male student was treated for a graze wound to his arm, Aaron said. Aaron clarified the gender of the wounded student at a later briefing.
Police identified the female student as Josselin Corea Escalante, 16. The shooter was identified as a 17-year-old student at the school, Solomon Henderson.
Another male student was treated for a facial injury that wasn't a gunshot wound after falling during the chaos, Aaron said.
Police didn't immediately have a motive for the shooting, and Drake said it wasn't yet clear if the victims were targeted. An investigation was ongoing. Police said that as of Wednesday night they hadn't determined any connection between the shooter and the two students who were hit, noting that "it may be that they were struck by his random gunfire in the cafeteria."
Police also said authorities were "examining very concerning on-line writings and social media posts" connected to the shooter as part of the investigation. CBS' Nashville affiliate reported that in the writings the shooter praised other mass shooters and shared antisemitic, extremist and far-right views.
A person familiar with the investigation told CBS News that investigators uncovered evidence that the shooter and Natalie Rupnow, who police say was responsible for the deadly shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, last month, were following each other's social media accounts.
But there is no evidence at this point that the two teenagers had been in direct contact or were in direct communication with each other, according to the person familiar with the investigation into the Nashville shooting.
In a statement Thursday, police said the shooter was significantly influenced by what they described as "web-based material, especially that found on non-traditional sites that most would find harmful and objectionable." The police said the FBI was working closely with them on what they described as the "ideological influences portion of this investigation."
The shooting started in the cafeteria at 11:09 a.m. local time, Aaron said. Police were called to the school at 11:11 a.m., he said.
The shooter's mother took him to school, police said Thursday, correcting an earlier statement that he took the bus. He went into a restroom to possibly "retrieve his weapon" before confronting Escalante in the cafeteria, the police chief said.
The shooter fired 10 shots from a 9 mm pistol within 17 seconds, police said Thursday. Responding officers found the shooter deceased in the cafeteria, Drake said.
The gun had nine rounds in it when it was recovered by investigators, police said. A pistol magazine with seven rounds in it was found on the cafeteria floor.
Federal authorities were tracing the gun used in the shooting as investigators try to determine how the shooter obtained it, Drake said. The gun was bought in Arizona in 2022 and wasn't reported stolen, police said Thursday, without identifying who purchased the weapon. Investigators searched the shooter's residence and didn't find any additional guns or firearm parts, police said.
Adrienne Battle, the city's director of schools, said the school district has used school resource officers, security cameras with weapon-detection software and security vestibules as part of its safety measures at schools. Two school resource officers were at the school but not in the immediate vicinity of the cafeteria at the time of the shooting, Aaron said.
"I know there are questions about whether additional steps such as stationary metal detectors should be considered," Battle said. "While past research has shown they have had limitations and unintended consequences, we will continue exploring emerging technologies and strategies to strengthen school safety."
During a news briefing Thursday, a school district official said the weapon-detection system uses artificial intelligence technology.
"In this instance, based on the shooter's location in proximity to the cameras, it wasn't close enough to get an accurate read and to activate that alarm," Sean Braisted, chief of communications and technology for the district, told reporters. "The system was activated by police when they brandished their weapons ... There's no foolproof solutions for any of this, but this is one extra step."
The shooting was partially livestreamed on the streaming platform KICK, according to a statement from the company.
KICK said it had removed the video from its platform and banned the account. "Violence has no place on KICK," the platform said in a statement. "We are actively working with law enforcement and taking all appropriate steps to support their investigation."
An Australian company, KICK was founded in 2022 by a group that includes Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, co-founders of the cryptocurrency-based online gambling platform Stake.com.
The platform, which is similar to Twitch and YouTube Live, is known for its generous revenue-sharing model with creators. Though the platform is also known for its less restrictive content moderation, it has policies banning depictions of violence and hate speech.
Parents earlier in the day were urged to not come to the school and instead to go to a hospital to reunite with their children.
Nashville's school district posted a phone number that families can call for information.
"The line is very busy," the school district said. "Stay on even if you don't hear a tone."
Police said buses would take the students to the reunification center. Aerial footage from CBS affiliate WTVF-TV showed a crowd of people outside the hospital.
Over 2,100 students are enrolled at the public high school.
Antioch is a neighborhood of Nashville about 10 miles southeast of downtown.
The shooting happened less than two years after a shooter killed three children and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville.
In 2024, 69 victims were killed in school shooting incidents, according to data from the K-12 School Shooting Database.
So far in 2025, there have been 10 school shooting incidents, according the group. In 2024, there were 330 incidents, the second-highest total in at least the last decade. The data includes any instance of a gun fired or brandished or when a bullet hits school property, including gang violence, domestic incidents and accidents.
