Nashville shooting marks 13th US school shooting in 2023
(NEXSTAR) – A deadly shooting at a small private Christian school in Nashville Monday morning marks the 13th school shooting in the U.S. so far in 2023.
Three children and three adults were killed in the incident at The Covenant School in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville. Police said a 28-year-old woman shot all six before responding officers fatally shot her.
According to metrics tracked by Education Week, more victims died in Monday’s school shooting in Nashville than any of the 13 school shootings that have happened in the U.S. this year.
This latest tragedy comes less than a week after a school shooting in Colorado. On March 22, two school administrators were injured in a shooting at East High School in Denver. The suspect in that case, a 17-year-old, was being searched as he entered the school when he got hold of a weapon and began firing. He was later found by a SWAT team searching for the teen.
In the two days leading up to the Denver shooting, two school shootings took place in Texas. On March 21, a student was shot in the parking lot of Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas. The student was believed to have non-life-threatening injuries.
A day earlier in Arlington at Lamar High School, a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed and another student, a girl, was shot in the jaw. The suspected shooter, a student at the school, is facing a capital murder charge.
March also saw two earlier shootings at schools. In Indianapolis on March 7, one person died and another was injured in a shooting outside Thomas Carr Howe High School. Investigators said an argument broke out at a basketball game before the shooting outside.
In Amarillo, Texas on March 6, a student on a tennis court outside Palo Duro High School was hit by stray gunfire from an incident that took place near the school campus.
There was only a single school shooting in February, at the Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. Authorities said a 15-year-old was shot and critically injured.
In January, there were six different school shootings across the U.S., including three different shootings on the same day.
- Two students were shot and killed, and another person was injured at a Des Moines, Iowa, youth program on January 23.
- A school staff member at Washington Technology Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota, was hit by gunfire on January 20 while breaking up a fight.
- One person was injured at Del City High School in Oklahoma on January 17 when police said someone fired “multiple rounds” in the school gym during a crowded basketball game after a heated exchange.
- On January 6, a student was injured in a shooting after a basketball game at Oak Park High School in Michigan. School officials noted that four people were arrested in connection with the shooting, all students at other nearby schools.
- Also on January 6, a teen was shot outside a basketball game at Wekiva High School in Florida. Authorities believe the shooting was not random but said the victim was just an innocent bystander.
- The last shooting on January 6 made headlines around the country and the world, as a 6-year-old student brought a gun to school and shot his teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. The first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner, continues her recovery after being released from the hospital.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 129 mass shootings in total in the United States in 2023.