A heavily armed former student shoot openly in an elementary school in Nashville in the US and killed three young children and three staff on Monday, reports AFP.
The shooter also got killed by police after carried out the massacre.
Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as Audrey Hale, 28, who the officer later said identified as transgender.
Hale left behind a manifesto, had maps of the school detailing surveillance and entry-exit points, and was "prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement," the police chief told reporters following the latest outburst of gun violence to stun the United States.
In an interview with NBC News, he said the suspect was likely plotting a broader attack, as the manifesto "indicates that there was going to be shootings at multiple locations, and the school was one of them."
Armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun, Hale entered The Covenant School, a Christian academy, from a side entrance, allegedly shooting through a door -- firing multiple shots while advancing through the building, according to police.
Police identified the six victims, saying one of the three children was eight years old and two were age nine, while the adults killed were age 60 to 61.
One of the victims, Katherine Koonce, is listed as head of the school on the academy's website.
There was confusion surrounding the suspect's gender identity, with officials using "she" and "her" to refer to them, while a LinkedIn profile appeared to identify Hale as a man.
Police said officers were on the scene within about 15 minutes of receiving the first emergency call around 10:00 am (1500 GMT), engaging the shooter, who returned fire before being shot dead.
Television images showed children holding hands as they left the school, and one searing photograph showed a child sobbing through the window of her yellow school bus as it pulled away from the crime scene.
Avery Myrick said her mother, a pre-kindergarten teacher at Covenant, hid as shots rang out through the school.
"She said she was hiding in the closet, and that there was shooting all over and that they had potentially tried to get into her room, and just that she loved us," Myrick told WSMV4 television, an NBC local affiliate.
When she heard her mother was safe it brought "a ton of relief."
"But you know, you're still hurting for the people out there who might not get that call," she said.
School shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, where the proliferation of firearms has soared in recent years.
President Joe Biden described the latest shooting as "sick" and said gun violence was tearing the nation's "soul," as he urged Congress to pass a ban on the assault weapons often used in mass shootings.
"It's ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation," he said.
A Nashville fire department spokesperson, Kendra Loney, said all unharmed students were escorted out of the building with faculty and staff.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
