A student at Antioch High School in Tennessee says he saw people “being shot on the ground” as he and his classmates ran toward the building’s exits during the fatal attack that took place there yesterday.
The stories that describe the chaotic scenes that took place in the prison Nashville School Wednesday emerges as investigators look for a motive behind the attack. Police say a 17-year-old student shooter – who posted “very concerning” writings online – killed 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante and injured another student before turning the gun on himself.
“We were in the cafeteria just having lunch, like any other day, and we kept hearing gunfire from the front of the cafeteria and then people looked around screaming. We ran behind the trash cans,” said one student. told WSMV, telling about the moment the shots rang out.
“I saw people shot to the ground bleeding,” he added, recounting how he and his friends crouched down and ran to a side door to flee the cafeteria.
Jordan Hebert leaves flowers at a memorial for the victims of a shooting at Antioch High School on Thursday, January 23, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP/George Walker IV)
In one separate interview with WZTV, the student said the shooter was “a monster who just killed people.”
“Everyone just dispersed – a lot of students were outside, inside. He wasn’t a kid you would think would do something like that, he stayed on task, he did his work, he was quiet,” another student told WMSV. “So I really wondered what was going through his mind. I felt like a whole conversation could have put an end to that, but it couldn’t have led to that.”
One Antioch student told WKRN News 2 that she and the alleged shooter “were also in ROTC together this year, and he was always at the top of the class.”
“I knew him personally. He was in my class, and I didn’t think he was like that. I just thought he was a sweet, quiet person, but he wasn’t,” said another.
TENNESSEE SCHOOL SCHOOLER WHO KILLED 1, INJURED ANOTHER, IDENTIFIED AS TEENAGE STUDENT: POLICE
Metro Nashville police respond to the shooting at Antioch High School on Wednesday. (X/ @MNPDNashville)
The father of Josselin Corea Escalante, identified by WTVF like German Korea, told the station: “Every day I told her how much I loved her.”
“It’s not fair,” he reportedly added.
Escalante’s aunt, Maria Corea, also told WTVF, “She was a very calm girl and well-behaved.”
Dasia Pleitez prays as she waits for her daughter at a unification site following a shooting at Antioch High School last Wednesday. (AP/George Walker IV)
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‘She had good grades at school. She was a girl who loved her parents and her entire family,” Corea added.
