Antioch High School students recount chaotic scenes as shooting unfolds, victim’s family speaks out

A student at Antioch High School in Tennessee says he saw people “shot to the ground” as he and his classmates rushed out of the building during the deadly attack that took place there yesterday.

Accounts of the chaos at a Nashville school Wednesday are emerging as investigators search for a motive for the attack. Police say the 17-year-old student shooter – who had posted “very emotional” posts online – killed Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, and wounded another student before turning the gun on himself.

“We were at a restaurant just having lunch like every day, and we kept hearing gunshots in front of the restaurant, and people were looking around crying. We ran behind the trash cans,” one student told WSMV, recounting the time the gunshots rang out. outside.

“I saw people shot on the ground, bleeding,” he added, recounting how he and his friends ducked and ran to a side door to escape the restaurant.

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In a separate interview with WZTV, the student said the shooter was “a horrible animal, just killing people.”

“Everyone just split up – a lot of students were outside, inside. He wasn’t a kid you would think would do something like that, he was always at work, doing his job, he was quiet,” one student told WMSV. “So I was wondering what was going on in his head. I felt like the whole conversation could end all of that, just lead to that.”

Another Antioch student told WKRN News 2 that he and the alleged shooter “were in ROTC together this year, and he was always at the top of the class.”

“I knew him personally. He was in my class, and I didn’t think he was like that. I thought he was a nice, quiet person, but he wasn’t,” said another.

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The Metro Nashville Police Department responded Wednesday to a shooting at Antioch High School. (X/ @MNPDNashville)

Josselin Corea Escalante’s father, identified by WTVF as German Corea, told the station that “Every day I told her how much I loved her.”

“It’s not fair,” he reportedly added.

Escalante’s aunt, Maria Corea, also told WTVF “She was a very calm and well behaved girl.”

Dasia Pleitez prays as she waits for her daughter at the assembly point after the shooting at Antioch High School on Wednesday. (AP/George Walker IV)

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“She had good grades in school. She was a girl who loved her parents and her whole family,” added Corea.