DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff on all public buildings in the wake of Monday's mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
Three students — all 9 years old — and three staff members were killed when a heavily armed former student attacked the small, private Christian school. The children were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The staff were identified as Cynthia Peak 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill 61. The school's website lists Koonce as the head of the school, Peak as a substitute teacher, and Hill as a custodian, according to investigators.
The suspect was shot and killed by police. Police Chief John Drake said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the shooter had “some resentment for having to go to that school," according to the Associated Press.
Early Tuesday, Gov. Polis ordered all flags on public buildings to be immediately lowered from sunrise Tuesday through sunset on Friday, as proclaimed by President Joe Biden.
President Biden's proclamation states:
As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on March 27, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, March 31, 2023. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh.
The Associated Press reported that according to a database compiled by the AP, USA Today and Northeastern University, there have been 15 mass shootings — defined as more than four people dying, not including the attacker — at schools or universities in the United States since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.
Of those 15 shootings, 175 people died.
