PEORIA, Ill. — Following a deadly mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee on Monday, school security is top of mind.
28-year-old Audrey Hale, a former student of Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, killed three 9-year-olds and three adults…the school’s principal, a substitute teacher, and the school’s janitor.
Nashville’s police chief said on Tuesday that Hale had been under a doctor’s care for an “emotional disorder”, prior to the shooting.
Hale had a collection of guns, three of which were used in the shooting on Monday.
Jonathan Juergens, with TAMRA (Threat Assessment, Mitigation, and Response Association), told WMBD’s “Greg and Dan Show”, that if Covenant School had cameras in every classroom, police could have gotten to Hale faster.
Juergens explains that’s one of a variety of technology and tactics that could have resulted in a different outcome. Another is AI camera analysis outside of the school, that could have caught Hale’s vehicle circling the building, and their weapons on camera before the attack.
“If we start making it harder for them to commit these acts of violence, then we can start focusing on the actual problem…which is mental health,” Juergens said.
There could have been a completely different outcome on Monday, Juergens said.
“The shooter in Nashville actually had another school listed as a target, but she/he chose not to shoot at that school, because it had other security measures in place,” Juergens said.
If armed officers were stationed inside Covenant School, Juergens added, they could have potentially thwarted the attack all together.
Nashville authorities are still trying to pin down a motive as they look into writings and other evidence left by Hale.
