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, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron told reporters during a news briefing. A police SWAT team has cleared the building.

“There is no danger at the school,” he 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 Chief John Drake said the female student was 16 years old. Police haven’t publicly identified the victims or the shooter. Aaron said next-of-kin notifications were being made to the families of the 16-year-old and the shooter.

Another male student was being treated for a facial injury that wasn’t a gunshot wound after falling during the chaos, Aaron said.

Aaron said the shooter was a 17-year-old male student. 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.

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 police department posted a photo to social media of officers responding. Parents 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.

contributed to this report.