A woman armed with two assault-style rifles and a pistol killed three students and three adult staff members Monday at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, before police shot her dead, in a rare mass shooting carried out by a female suspect.

The violence at The Covenant School took place after the shooter, a 28-year-old White woman, entered the school through a side entrance.

Metropolitan Nashville Police said responding officers entered the school and moved toward the sound of gunshots, encountering “a female who was firing” on the school’s second floor. Two officers opened fire on her, killing her.

Authorities were working to identify her and whether she had a connection to the school. NBC News, citing three law-enforcement sources who were briefed on the matter, identified the shooter as Nashville resident Audrey Hale. 

Police Chief John Drake said the shooter previously may have been a student at the school. He said all doors to the school, a pre-K through 6th grade campus, had been locked.

Chief Drake told reporters that he was “moved to tears” by what he saw in the aftermath at the school.

President Biden urged Congress again Monday to approve a ban on assault weapons, citing the Nashville shooting.

“It’s heartbreaking, a family’s worst nightmare,” Mr. Biden said. “We have to do more to stop gun violence.  It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping at the very soul of this nation. We have to do more to protect our schools. I call on Congress again to pass my assault weapons ban.”

The first call to police came at 10:13 a.m. local time. The school has about 200 students and is part of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, located in the city’s affluent Green Hills neighborhood. The tragedy unfolded over roughly 14 minutes. 

Officers began clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level, police spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news briefing.

Two officers from a five-member team opened fire in response, fatally shooting the suspect at 10:27 a.m., Mr. Aaron said. He said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.

Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler, said a female mass shooter is extremely rare, especially one as young as the Nashville suspect.

“This blows the curve as far as who normally does the shooting, their age, their background, their gender,” he said. “Every time we think we’ve seen everything when it comes to mass shootings, we see something we never saw before. Women are accustomed to resolving things without violence. They are more willing to talk about things where the man gets physical.”

Mr. VanZandt said it is also surprising that a woman would target children, which is even rarer for the small number of female mass shooters. He said it will be interesting to discern her motivation.

“She’s making some sort of statement,” he said of the shooter. “She wants to hurt someone so bad or she’s so wounded she wants to strike back at innocent victims.” 

Studies vary on the number of female mass shooters but all conclude that they are extremely unusual.

A report by the Violence Project, which studied 172 mass shootings between 1966 and 2021 found that only four were carried out by women. In two of those cases, the women acted in partnership with a man.

The Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center issued a report in 2021 analyzing 67 averted attacks on schools between 2006 and 2018. The study found that only 5% of the plotters were female, while 95% were male.

An FBI list of active shooter incidents between 2000 to 2018 found that nine of the 250 incidents involved female shooters. 

After the shooting Monday, other students walked to safety, holding hands as they left their school surrounded by police cars, to a nearby church to be reunited with their parents.

“In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting,” Mayor John Cooper wrote on Twitter. “My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Our entire city stands with you.”

Jozen Reodica heard the police sirens and fire trucks blaring from outside her office building nearby. As her building was placed under lockdown, she took out her phone and recorded the chaos.

“I thought I would just see this on TV,” she said. “And right now, it’s real.”

On WTVF TV, reporter Hannah McDonald said that her mother-in-law works at the front desk at The Covenant School. The woman had stepped outside for a break Monday morning and was coming back when she heard gunshots, McDonald said during a live broadcast. The reporter said she has not been able to speak with her mother-in-law but said her husband had.

The killings in Nashville follow other recent school shootings, including the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year; a first grader who shot his teacher in Virginia; and a shooting last week in Denver that wounded two administrators.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr. Biden wants Congress to act “because enough is enough.”

“How many more children have to be murdered before Republicans in Congress will step up and act and pass the assault weapons ban, close loopholes in our background check system or require the safe storage of guns,” she said.

First lady Jill Biden also addressed the shooting while speaking at an event in the District.

“We just learned about another shooting in Tennessee — a school shooting — and I am truly without words,” Mrs. Biden said. “Our children deserve better. And we stand, all of us, we stand with Nashville in prayer.”

Republican officials praised the quick actions of first responders.

“Devastated and heartbroken about the tragic news at Covenant School,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, Tennessee Republican, said in a statement over Twitter. “I’m grateful to law enforcement and first responders for their heroic actions. I am monitoring the situation closely, and my office is in contact with local officials & available to anyone needing assistance.”

Fellow Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn said that she was “heartbroken to hear about the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville” and added that she’s ready to assist first responders in any way. Rep. Andy Ogles, Tennessee Republican, said that “As a father of three, I am utterly heartbroken by this senseless act of violence.”

Democratic state Rep. Bob Freeman, who hails from Nashville, also expressed his condolences in a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

“I live around the corner from Covenant and pass by it often. I have friends who attend both church and school there. I have also visited the church in the past. It tears my heart apart to see this,” Mr. Freeman said in the statement.

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.