McGill University seeks emergency injunction to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampment
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
Authorities released 911 recordings on Thursday that capture the terror inside a Nashville elementary school during a mass shooting this week, as callers pleaded for help in hushed voices while sirens, crying and gunfire could be heard in the background.
Police released recordings of three emergency calls made during Monday's attack at The Covenant School, in which three children and three adults were killed.
In one, 76-year-old retired church member Tom Pulliam tells the dispatcher he is with a group of people, including several children, who are walking away from the Christian school toward a main road. Although Pulliam remains calm, the tension and confusion of the situation are clear, with several adults speaking over each other and children's voices in the background.
When the dispatcher requests a description of the shooter, Pulliam asks a second man to get on the line.
"All I saw was a man holding an assault rifle shooting through the door. It was -- he's currently in the second grade hallway, upstairs" the man says, noting that the assailant was dressed in camouflage and wearing a vest.
Asked about how many shots were fired, a woman responds, "I heard about 10 and I left the building."
Pulliam, who was driving with his wife near the church when the attack happened, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he is struggling to make sense of it. He said he mostly recalls the children and how calm they seemed, not "yelling and screaming or anything."
"Up there for a normal day of school, these young children," he said. "Now, there's difficult days to go through."
In another call that started just before 10:13 a.m., a woman tells a dispatcher that she can hear a pause in the gunshots from her hiding spot in an art room closet.
Asked if it is a safe spot, the woman answers, "I think so," as children can be heard in the background.
The teacher then says she can hear more gunshots, begging the dispatcher, "Please hurry."
Another caller says he is in a second-floor room and asks the dispatcher to send help.
"I think we have a shooter at our church," he says, later adding that he thinks the shooter is on the second floor, too.
Authorities say the attack ended when police shot and killed the assailant, a former student they identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale.
The release of the recordings came as people protested at the Tennessee Capitol on Thursday in favour of tighter gun controls, haranguing the Republican-led Legislature to take action.
Chants of "Save our children!" echoed noisily in the hallways between the state Senate and House chambers, with protesters setting up shop inside and outside the building. Some silently filled the Senate chamber's gallery, including children who held signs reading "I'm nine" -- a reference to the age of the kids who died. Most protesters were removed from the gallery after some began yelling down at the lawmakers, "Children are dead!"
The protests followed a Wednesday night candlelight vigil in Nashville where Republican lawmakers stood alongside first lady Jill Biden, Democratic lawmakers and musicians including Sheryl Crow, who has called for stricter gun controls since the attack.
The vigil was sombre and at times tearful, as speaker after speaker read the victims' names and offered condolences to their loved ones but refrained from any statement that could be seen as political.
"Just two days ago was our city's worst day," Mayor John Cooper said. "I so wish we weren't here, but we need to be here."
Police said Hale drove up to the school on Monday morning, shot out the glass doors, entered and began firing indiscriminately.
The three students who were killed were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The three adults were Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, a 61-year-old custodian.
Funeral plans are starting to take shape, with services for Evelyn on Friday, Hallie on Saturday and Hill on Tuesday. Evelyn's obituary urged mourners to wear joyful colors as a tribute to her "light and love of color."
Absent from the vigil was Tennessee's Republican governor, Bill Lee, who has avoided public appearances this week and has not proposed any possible steps his administration might take in response to the shooting. Lee has been an advocate for less restrictive gun laws along with greater school security, and he once intimated that prayer could protect the state from school shootings and other things.
As with similar responses to gun violence, the state's Republican leaders have avoided calling for tighter gun restrictions and instead have thrown their support behind bolstering school security.
In a letter to Lee, Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called for securing windows and glass in school buildings, adding magnetic locks on doors, modernizing camera systems, and increasing armed guards.
"While these changes would come with a cost, I believe it is important for us to have a conversation about how to increase and modernize security at schools in Tennessee," wrote McNally, adding later that he also is in favor of red flag laws like one in Florida.
Meanwhile, Tennessee's U.S. senators, Republicans Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, were pushing for legislation that would create a US$900 million grant program to "harden" schools and hire safety officers.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake has not said what investigators think the shooter's motive was, only noting that the assailant didn't target specific victims and had "some resentment for having to go to that school."
Drake said the shooter had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance before carrying out the attack. Drake also said Hale left behind writings that the chief referred to as a "manifesto," but authorities haven't released the writings to the public.
Police have said Hale was under a doctor's care for an undisclosed "emotional disorder." However, authorities haven't disclosed a link between that care and the shooting. Police also said Hale was not on their radar before the attack.
Social media accounts and other sources indicate that the shooter identified as a man and might have recently begun using the first name Aiden. Police have said Hale "was assigned female at birth" but used masculine pronouns on a social media profile, however police have continued to use female pronouns and the name Audrey to describe Hale.
------
Associated Press reporter Adrian Sainz in Memphis contributed to this report.
McGill University has filed a request for an injunction to have the pro-Palestinian encampment removed from its campus.
The head of British Columbia’s civil service has revealed that a “state or state-sponsored actor” is behind multiple cyber-security incidents against provincial government networks.
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
A swarm of roughly 20,000 bees gathered around a woman’s car in the parking lot of Burlington Centre.
The Biden administration said Israel's use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law but wartime conditions prevented U.S. officials from determining that for certain in specific airstrikes.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's youngest son, Barron Trump, has declined to serve as a delegate at this summer’s Republican National Convention, according to a senior Trump campaign adviser and a statement from Melania Trump's office.
A person was arrested in East Vancouver Thursday after allegedly entering a car while a mother was breastfeeding her four-month-old boy.
The actions, including the decision to use non-lethal force, to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters from the University of Calgary campus were justified, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Friday.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.