Antioch High School shooter Solomon Henderson managed to avoid an artificial intelligence weapons detection system in the moments before he opened fire and killed 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante.
Metro Nashville Public Schools had invested more than $1million into the Omnilert system, which works with all of the district’s cameras to immediately recognize weapons and alert the local police department, the Tennessean reports.
But when Henderson, 17, retrieved a handgun from the men’s room Wednesday morning, the camera system did not notice his weapon.
‘In this instance, based on the location of the shooter and the position of the weapon, it did not activate the system,’ school district spokesman Sean Braisted said at a news conference Thursday.
However, when police and school resource officers arrived on the scene, the system did activate.
Omnilert CEO Dave Fraser also emphasized to NBC News that ‘this is not a case of the firearm not being recognized by the system,’ and instead, ‘the location of the shooter and the firearm meant that the weapon was not visible.’
Police have said Henderson opened fire inside the school cafeteria shortly after 11am, firing several rounds using a pistol, before taking his own life with the weapon.
Another student was also injured with a graze wound to the arm, and was rushed to the hospital in stable condition, while a fourth boy was injured during the commotion to flee the scene.
Adrienne Battle, the superintendent of Nashville schools, said in the aftermath that the district implemented a ‘range of safety measures’ including partnerships with the police for school resource officers, shatter-resistant film for glass and security vestibules that provide a barrier between visitors and the main entrance.
‘It all works together as a system, but one system alone is not going to keep people safe,’ Braisted said Thursday.
‘And there’s also just the general public concerns about how a 17 year old has a weapon.
‘I mean, these are questions that are beyond the scope of Metro Schools, but they need to be addressed by the broader community.
‘But we are doing what we can as a district to install and equip our schools with the safety protocols and resources that we can use to be safe.’
Donald Maye, head of operations at surveillance technology research company IPVM, said Wednesday’s shooting ‘highlights the challenges school districts face’.
‘They’ll make these announcements that they’ve invested millions on a solution and then there are still many cases that can occur where the system is not going to be a factor in preventing violence.’
Amy Klinger, the director of programs for nonprofit Educator’s School Safety Network, added that the most effective safeguard schools can use to prevent violence are based on building trust among students, teachers and administrators to share early signs of potential threats – like erratic behavior or troubling social media posts.
‘In the vast majority of cases there is something of concern – behaviors, disclosures, conversations, warning signs – that if someone is paying attention you could pick up on,’ she said.
‘If you combine that with technology, great. But you can’t replace it with technology.’
It is now believed Henderson was ‘significantly influenced’ by web-based materials found on sites police said ‘most would find harmful or objectionable.’
There are also online materials that police are investigating, Police Chief John Drake said Wednesday.
‘There are some materials on the Internet that we’re looking at, that’s under investigation,’ he said, according to The Tennessean.
‘We believe there’s some materials out there, and maybe they were seen,’ he continued, adding that if someone ‘said something, maybe more could have been done.’
Henderson even livestreamed the shooting online, and had written on his X page that he saved up enough money to buy a GoPro camera ‘but it was hard to explain to my parents why I needed it, so I couldn’t buy it,’ according to Raw Story.
But classmates described Henderson to WKRN as a ‘smart person [at the] top of the class’ who ‘was quiet and to himself.’
He was also in the military training program, and may have had at least one ‘prior incident’ at the high school, Drake said at a news conference – though he said he was unsure of the details.
On Wednesday, police said they received a phone call about a shooting at the school within just two minutes of Henderson opening fire.
Two school resource officers were also inside the building, but were not in the immediate vicinity of the cafeteria, and by the time they arrived at the scene, Henderson had already killed himself.
Police had initially claimed the teenage shooter took the bus to school that day, authorities have since learned that his mother drove him to the high school, according to Fox News.
Officers have also determined that Henderson fired 10 shots from a 9mm pistol within just 16 seconds of entering the cafeteria.
The handgun was loaded with nine rounds when it was recovered from the scene, and a magazine loaded with seven rounds was also recovered from the cafeteria floor.
The Metro Nashville Police Department’s investigation has not found any connection between the shooter and the victims.
‘It may be that they were struck by his random gunfire in the cafeteria,’ the department said, WSMV reports.
But police have determined that the pistol used in the shooting was purchased by an unidentified individual in Arizona in 2022 and had not been reported stolen. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is now helping the police determine how Henderson acquired the weapon.