NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The deadly shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, comes nearly two and a half years after a former student took six lives inside The Covenant School in Green Hills.

On Wednesday, officials said a shooter opened fire during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 17 others, 14 of which are children, before dying by suicide.

For Mary Joyce, the shooting in Minneapolis hits close to home. Her 9-year-old daughter was a student at The Covenant School on March 27, 2023, when a former student opened fire inside the school, killing three kids and three staff members before being fatally shot by police. 

“It's the same tears, it's the same panic, it's the same grief, it's the same PTSD,” Joyce said. “It's just different scenes, different children and different families.”

Joyce told News 2 that her daughter was huddled together with her third-grade classmates trying to stay safe as bullets flew through their classroom. 

“The third-grade class got the brunt of it,” Joyce said. “They were directly attacked by the shooter in their classroom. They lost their three classmates in the hallway, just outside their door, and they saw the shooter. They saw her face, they heard her screaming, they heard the bullets, they saw the gun sticking into their classroom, shooting.”

As Joyce began to learn more details about Wednesday’s shooting, she said she broke down in tears and reflected on the emotions and feelings she had in Nashville back in 2023. She calls the two tragedies ‘eerily similar.’

“We're a faith-based community, and they are a faith-based community, and it is extremely unsettling to be in the safety of that sanctuary, and then have that completely shattered,” Joyce said. “The only thing that you can do is just lean on your friends and pray to God."

Joyce encouraged anyone who is compelled to turn pain into purpose, like she and other Covenant mothers have, to band together and demand change and action to prevent future tragedies.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/eerily-similar-covenant-parent-reacts-to-minneapolis-school-shooting/