Nashville school shooting – live: Evelyn Dieckhaus called ‘shining light’ as first funeral takes place

Evelyn Dieckhaus, nine, one of the victims of Monday’s horrific Nashville school shooting, was killed while leading her classmates to safety in response to a fire alarm seemingly tripped by the attacker, her family believes.

Her aunt, Kelly Dorrance, wrote in an private Instagram post since provided to The Daily Beast: “We’re finding out the shooter may have pulled the fire alarm to get kids out of their classroom. Evelyn being one of the class leaders was at the front of the line assuming fire drill.

“She was trying to lead her classmates to safety and possibly didn’t hear the shouts to come back in the room. Things children should never worry about.”

Dorrance told the outlet her niece was “radiant – a beacon of joy in our family. She had a calm confidence and a natural sense of purpose – alongside a whip smart sense of humor and a sly little smile.”

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department meanwhile confirmed to the same source that its investigation currently indicates “that the alarm originated from the area of the shooter’s entry” at The Covenant School on Monday morning.

In the weeks before Monday’s horror in Nashville, Tennessee lawmakers considered several pieces of legislation to loosen restrictions on firearms.

The proposals were introduced two years after Republican governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law that makes it easier for people to openly carry handguns in the state without a permit. Tennessee is one of 25 states with a permitless concealed carry law, a measure that has been rapidly adopted by lawmakers across the US as part of what right-wing activists have called a “constitutional carry” movement in recognition of the Second Amendment.

The same year Tennessee’s legislation was signed into law, lawmakers approved similar measures in Arizona, Iowa, Montana, Texas and Utah. In 2022, lawmakers passed similar bills in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Ohio.

Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, a probable presidential candidate in 2024, is expected to sign a similar measure into law this year after its passage in a GOP-controlled legislature.

Tennessee’s law allows most people 21 and older to carry handguns openly or concealed without a permit. It also extends those exceptions to US military service members from age 18.

Audio from a phone call made by Averianna Patton – the friend of Audrey Hale who received that string of alarming Instagram messages just prior to the shootings – in which she tries to report her concerns about the latter’s social media posts has been published for the first time.

Monday’s mass shooting was just the latest instance of America’s worsening gun violence epidemic.

According to a Washington Post database, there have been 17 school shootings this year already. Overall, in 2023, counting the Nashville shooting, there have been at least 39 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 18 deaths, according to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group.

Only three months into the year, 2023 has already seen more gun deaths on school grounds than in past years like 2016 and appears set to eclipse totals from other years like 2020, 2017 and 2014.

The funeral of Evelyn Dieckhaus, one of three nine-year-old children killed at the Covenant School shooting, took place on Friday afternoon in Nashville.

Evelyn was remembered as a “shining light” in the funeral, which was closed to the media, at the Woodmont Christian Church in the Green Hills neighbourhood of the city.

Before the service, the church’s senior minister, the Rev Clay Stauffer, described the youngster as “radiant.”

“She was a shining light. She was radiant,” Rev Stauffer told the Associated Press. “I think our challenge is to take her light and keep spreading it to a world that has so much darkness and pain.”

As details continue to emerge about Audrey Hale and Monday’s shooting, the tragedy has left many eager to help the victims’ families and the wider community.

Here are some ways you can support and aid a city in mourning.

Here’s Rachel Sharp with the latest on the suspect’s possible motivation for Monday’s attack.

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has written to Speaker Kevin McCarthy asking him to push forward gun control legislation.

“I write today to strongly urge you to immediately bring up common sense gun safety legislation for a vote upon our return to Congress,” the Democrat wrote in his letter.

Football coach Brent Key became emotional yesterday as he spoke about the deadly shooting in Nashville.

Key choked up as he described how his mother was a teacher and pleaded for “something” to change.

“As long as people sit up there and bicker and argue, more and more kids are going to die,” Mr Key said. “So something’s gotta change. Everybody please, do something.”

For Indy Voices, Skylar Baker-Jordan offers an impassioned answer to attempts by the right to co-opt The Covenant School massacre as part of its vile war against the LGBT+ community.