Nearly eight hours after an Antioch High School student opened fire on his classmates, killing one student and wounding another before turning the gun on himself, Nashville community members gathered to mourn during yet another tragedy in Middle Tennessee.
Hamilton United Methodist Church senior pastor Quentin Dickerson and pastor of Arabic ministries Mamdouh Ramzy welcomed around 80 mourners, including several AHS students, teachers, elected officials, gun reform activists and other community members, leading them in prayer in both English and Arabic.
Some two-and-a-half miles away, blue police lights bathed the entrances to AHS, its parking lot still filled with crime scene investigators throughout the night.
Gunman shot two students before turning the gun on himself; reunification efforts underway
As previously reported, the shooting occurred on Wednesday at 11:09 a.m. in the AHS cafeteria. Sixteen-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante was killed, and an unidentified male student was struck in the arm by gunfire.
Several Metro councilmembers — including District 8 Councilmember Deonté Harrell, who represents Antioch — spoke, with Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell telling the crowd, “I’m tired of vigils, and yet I’m comforted to be in this space with you all tonight.”
“It’s especially difficult because our schools are supposed to be temples of learning — never mausoleums,” O’Connell said. “Today, as a city, as a community, I will say that it’s difficult to reckon once again with the devastation of gun violence in one of our school communities.”
The shooting is the latest in a seemingly never-ending string of tragedies across the country, with 83 school shootings occurring in 2024. According to Education Week, Antioch’s was the first U.S. school shooting in a K-12 school in 2025.
Among the attendees was at least one Covenant School parent, who expressed her condolences and shared how the support from past school gun violence survivors has helped the Covenant School community following its own 2023 school shooting.
Current AHS teacher Aaron Rodriguez, a 2006 graduate who returned to teach at the school six years ago, spoke of his love of the Antioch community.
“When I moved back to Nashville, I couldn't think of any other school that I wanted to teach at because day in and day out, what I love to see is your children's faces as they get to make those memories that I got to make, and make those friends that I made who are still my best friends to this day,” Rodriguez said. “And the memory I never want for them is what I saw on their faces today, where this community, this space where they get to grow and find out who they are, becomes a tragedy.
“To parents out there, I want you to know that your children are brave and they did everything right, and we’re looking out for them. I implore all of you to think about all the ways that you can help us, so that we can help them make these schools the places where they look forward to going.”
Nashville’s Southeast Community Center, located at 5260 Hickory Hollow Parkway, Suite 202, is open Thursday as a grieving space for students, parents, school staff and anyone who is in need of counseling. AHS remains closed throughout the rest of this week.
This article was first published at our sister publication Nashville Post.
