Nashville news anchor fights back tears as she reports on school shooting

A Nashville news anchor fought back tears as she reported on the school shooting in the city leaving three adults and three children dead.

Amanda Hara said during a broadcast at WSMV on Monday that she was “getting emails from my child’s school that they’re going into lockdown at this time just as a precaution”.

“And one of my other children’s schools is working with security to make sure that everything is safe,” she added as she grew emotional.

Fellow anchor Holly Thompson laid a hand on her shoulder and said “it’s going to be okay”.

She then turned to the viewers and said, “it’s obviously very emotional, we know many of you are just now tuning in and as a parent, you know our hearts go out to all these kids and these other parents who are out there”.

“We know the emotions are high, there’ so much concern, there’s still a lot of panic, there’s worry because we have a lot of people trying to figure out what’s the status of my child, what’s the status of my spouse,” Ms Thompson added.

The suspect in the Nashville school shooting is a 28-year-old from the city, police have said.

Audrey Hale is said to have used two assault-type rifles and a handgun. The suspect was fatally shot by police.

Police have identified the suspected shooter by their name at birth; Hale reportedly was a transgender man who used he/him pronouns, though law enforcement officials initially described the suspect as a woman in the aftermath of the shooting. Police did not provide another name.

Hale allegedly killed three adults and three children in the shooting.

Only one officer was injured, from cut glass. Two officers from a team of five engaged the suspect and shot Hale, police said.

“This is a church that operates a private school. There were no Metro Police personnel assigned to that school of any kind,” he added.

“There is video from the school that we are viewing now to try and understand what happened,” he said.

Police were called to the scene at 10.13am local time and the suspect was shot and killed 14 minutes later, at 10.27am.

Mr Aaron told the press that police were going through the first floor when they heard gunshots from upstairs.

“They immediately went to the gunfire,” Mr Aaron told the press, adding that the suspect entered the school via a side entrance and went to the second floor, “firing multiple shots”.

The confrontation between officers and the suspect then took place on the second floor in a “lobby-type area”.

The shooting took place at The Covenant School; the Presbyterian institution has around 200 students from preschool to sixth grade.