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On Monday, a heavily armed 28-year-old woman fatally shot three children and three elderly staff at a private Christian school the suspect once attended in the Tennessee capital of Nashville before police killed her assailant, AFP reported.

The agency referred the authorities.

A motive was not immediately known, but the suspect drew detailed maps of the school, including entry points to the building, and 

left a "manifesto" and other texts

that investigators are looking into, Police Chief John Drake told reporters.

The latest in the epidemic of deadly mass gun violence that regularly terrorizes even America's most venerable institutions unfolded on a warm spring morning at Covenant School, whose students are mostly elementary school-age

 children

.

Drake identified the suspect as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, of the Nashville area.

"My initial findings are that she was a student at this school at one point, but 

it's not certain what year

," Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters.

In response to reporters' questions, the police chief said, "She identifies as transgender."

Three children died in a school shooting in the US

Local media quoted a police spokesman as saying Audrey Elizabeth Hale used the pronouns he/his. 

Hale has used male pronouns

 on his LinkedIn page, which lists his most recent jobs in graphic design and grocery delivery.

At a news conference earlier in the evening, Drake said police were working on a "theory" about what may have precipitated the shooting and would "put it out there as soon as we can."

In a subsequent interview with NBC News, Drake said investigators believe the shooting was 

prompted by "some resentment"

the suspect had "for having to attend this school" when he was younger.

The police chief did not specify the nature of this alleged insult, nor whether it had anything to do with the gender identity of the suspect or the Christian orientation of the school, reports news.bg.

Drake said the school was singled out for attack, but the individual victims were targeted at random.

US President Joe Biden

Joe Biden (Joseph Robin Biden) is an American politician. Joe Biden was born on November 20, 1942 in described the fatal shooting as "disgusting" and said that 

gun violence is tearing apart the "soul

" of the nation.

"It's just disgusting," he said at the White House.

Biden praised police for responding "within minutes" but called on Congress to pass a ban on "assault" weapons.

Joe Biden