Metro Nashville Police Department X (formerly Twitter)
Two students are dead and another is injured after a shooting at a Nashville high school this morning. Police are on the scene.
Announcement: Antioch High School is on a lockdown due to shots being fired inside the school building. Metro Police are on the scene. The person responsible for shooting is no longer a threat. We will be gathering students in the auditorium and will provide information on…
— Metro Schools (@MetroSchools) January 22, 2025
The Metro Nashville Police Department reported the shooting took place in Antioch High School’s cafeteria. Police say 17-year-old Solomon Henderson shot two students and then himself. Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, died after being transferred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. A third student went to the hospital with what police described as a “graze wound” and was in stable condition Wednesday afternoon.
The assailant died on the scene.
Two school resource officers were in the building at the time of the shooting, but not in the cafeteria where it took place.
Catherine Sweeney WPLN News
The scene outside Antioch High School at noon Wednesday
Police Chief John Drake told reporters in a briefing at the scene that police do not yet know the motive for the shooting, or how the 17-year-old got the gun.
“We work closely with our federal partners and they’re doing a trace on the weapon as we speak,” Drake said.
The police are able to run guns through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms eTrace system – which is only available to law enforcement officials.
Tracing guns can be difficult in Tennessee because of state laws that have made it easy to possess guns here without permits. Background checks are not required for private sales, including sales online or at gun shows. And juveniles under 18, like the shooter, are not legally allowed to have handguns. So it’s possible that the trace might turn up results from whenever the last official sale took place.
The shooting set off a whirlwind of confusion for families. Traffic gridlock slowed reunifications in a nearby parking lot, with some parents parking along roadways and walking in the below freezing temperatures to be reunited.
Antioch High School is closed for the rest of the week. The school district said the Southeast Community Center would resources and support for staff, students, and families — including grief counseling, hot meals, and food boxes.
The Antioch area is one of Nashville’s most diverse — with nearly equal white and Black populations and a larger percentage of Latinos than elsewhere in the city (18% compared to 11%). The victim, Escalante, was Hispanic. The assailant was Black.
Catherine Sweeney WPLN News
Students and family members gather outside of the reunification center on Wednesday afternoon.
The community reacts
Hamilton United Methodist Church is hosting a vigil Wednesday night in light of both the Antioch High School shooting and the one at SkyBar, an Antioch lounge, on Monday.
“It is impossibly difficult to be here, once again, dealing with the devastation of gun violence in one of our school communities,” said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell at a press conference. (O’Connell was in elected office, as a Metro councilmember, at the time of the Covenant School shooting.)
MNPS Director of Schools Adrienne Battle is an MNPS graduate and was once an administrator on campus.
“As a former principal of Antioch High School, this loss is deeply personal to me,” Battle told reporters Wednesday. “We lost students in a tragic incident and the life of a peer — forever changing the lives of everyone who knew them.”
Deonte Harrell is the councilmember for District 8, which includes the part of Antioch the high school is in. He says safety has been one of his top priorities on Metro Council.
“I am a bonus dad. I have a 14-year-old. I can only imagine … the feelings that these parents are having,” Harrell told WPLN News. “For it to be so close to home, it’s a tragedy anywhere, but it hits even harder when it’s right here on your front doorstep.”
At-Large Metro Councilmember Delishia Porterfield used to represent a neighboring district.
“It is definitely heartbreaking that gun violence has once again impacted our community,” she told WPLN News. “And it is unfortunate that we live in a state that we have unfettered access to arms, and it’s going to continue to put our youth at risk and put our communities at risk.”
‘Senseless tragedy’
State Sen. Charlane Oliver, D-Nashville, represents the Antioch area.
“My heart is broken over the devastating shooting at Antioch High School today,” she said in a statement. “As a mother and a representative of this community, I grieve with the families, students, and staff who are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. My heart goes out to the victims who were shot, their loved ones, and everyone impacted by this horrific act of violence. No child should ever feel unsafe in their school, and no family should face the anguish of such a senseless loss.”
Oliver said her Senate office would be ready to assist the affected families and that she would be pushing for legislative changes to address gun violence.
Nashville Rep. John Ray Clemmons, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, called it an “unspeakable tragedy” and said he would be praying for the injured and all students at Antioch High School.
“Our efforts will not stop at thoughts and prayers — we will continue to fight for common sense gun safety solutions that protect our children and communities from gun violence,” he continued.
Recently elected Democrat Shaundelle Brooks, whose son was killed in the Waffle House mass shooting in 2018, decried the violence and called for gun reform.
“My prayers are with all of those impacted by this senseless tragedy. We are only one week into the start of our legislative session and already our state has been ravaged by another school shooting,” she wrote.” We must do better.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who called a 2023 special session on public safety after the Covenant School shooting, released a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
I’ve been briefed on the incident at Antioch High School and am grateful for law enforcement & first responders who responded quickly and continue to investigate. As we await more information, I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families & the school community.
— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) January 22, 2025
Rachel Iacovone, Paige Pfleger, Cynthia Abrams, Catherine Sweeney, Marianna Bacallao, Tony Gonzalez, Miriam Kramer and LaTonya Turner contributed reporting and editing.
This is a developing story. Some things that get reported early on, by the media or law enforcement, could later turn out to be wrong. WPLN News will have updates as the situation develops.
This story was last updated at 5:10 p.m. Wednesday.
