Shooting
Prior to the shooting, Henderson went into a school restroom and is believed to have retrieved a weapon there. [1] [4] [5] The handgun was reported to be a 9mm Taurus G2C semi-automatic pistol. [2] The shooting began at 11:09 a.m. when Henderson confronted 16-year-old female student Josselin Corea Escalante in the cafeteria and killed her with his handgun. [1] [3] [5] Henderson fired several more shots, then proceeded to shoot himself in the head with the same handgun. [1] [3] Two injuries occurred; one caused by being grazed by a bullet, [5] and another facial injury following a fall. Both of the injured were students. [1] [3] [4] Ten shots in total were fired during the shooting within 17 seconds. Two magazines were recovered, the one inserted having nine 9mm rounds inside and the other having seven. [1] The shooting was livestreamed in part on the service Kick. [1]
The gun used in the shooting was obtained legally in Arizona in 2022 and had never been reported as stolen. [1] It still remains unknown how the weapon came into Henderson's possession, despite law enforcement working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms to resolve the mystery. [6] Two school resource officers were in the school building but were not in the cafeteria at the time of the shooting. [1] [3] The school did not have metal detectors. [7]
Preparation
Materials from Henderson's virtual diary made public following the shooting suggest the attack was originally going to be on a far larger scale than what actually occurred. On December 12, 2024, Henderson shared a photo of a packet of nails he had purchased and a tub of Vaseline, claiming he was planning to construct an Improvised Explosive Device with the materials. [8] A few days later on January 01, 2025, Henderson debated on carrying out the attack whilst he is still seventeen or waiting until he was eighteen in order “to get better equipment like gopro and better guns.” This correlates with Henderson's original goal of murdering ten or more students at the High School, which would be far more feasible with improved weapons, such as a rifle. [9] [8]
However, by January of 2025, Henderson seems to have altered his plans out of fear of being arrested before he is able to carry out the attack. On January 16, 2025, Henderson wrote “The shooting will happen next Thursday [a] . This is a complete failure and not the original plan I had. Due my incompetent [b] , the law and family issues.” [8] The Nashville Police Department or the family of Henderson have not commented on these issues Henderson was experiencing, however Henderson's tone suggests these problems may have derailed his original plans for the shooting.
Perpetrator
Seventeen-year-old male Solomon Sahmad Charlie Henderson [10] (March 23, 2007 [11] –January 22, 2025) was identified as the perpetrator. [1] [3] The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department was investigating writings and social media posts connected to Henderson. [3] [5] In the writings, Henderson praised various mass killers, [5] including the perpetrators of the Christchurch mosque shootings and 2022 Bratislava shooting, [12] along with sharing antisemitic and racist views. [1] [4] [5] [8] An aforementioned 288-page diary attributed to Henderson expressed a desire to kill people and a fear of being caught by authorities. [8] A separate 51-page document expressed white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs, including hatred towards minority groups. Henderson, who was African-American, described himself as a black man who was angry at members of his own race. [4] Henderson was admittedly a frequent user of the imageboard Soyjak Party, and his manifesto contained several memes and jargon originating from that imageboard. [13] [14] He was also active on a forum dedicated to sharing depictions of graphic violence. [15] [16] Police investigators discovered evidence that Henderson and the perpetrator of the Abundant Life Christian School shooting, Natalie "Samantha" Rupnow, were following each other on social media but did not coordinate in their planning of their respective attacks. [1] [17] [5] Henderson was also, according to his online diary, abused by his mother. She had even placed a gun to his head at one point when he was seven to nine-years-old. However, these claims were never confirmed by a secondary source. [9]
Henderson was described as quiet by classmates. [4] Notably, however, Henderson had been suspended for two days after bringing a box cutter to school and threatening another student on October 25, 2024. He was also scheduled to appear in juvenile court due to the incident, however the family of the threatened student decided not to press charges against Henderson. [18] Henderson was granted judicial diversion on January 08, 2025, exactly one fortnight prior to the shooting. [19]
It was discovered that police had been called to the Henderson's residence at least three times prior to the shooting. [20] The first 911 call was made in 2020 by Henderson's mother. She reported Henderson as a runaway, and claimed he had punched her in the face and “tried to hit her with a chair before running away.” He was later found and arrested in Clarksville, Tennessee. [21] The second visit came in October 2023 due to Nashville police department having evidence linking the household to the theft of two firearms. These firearms were discovered during a search of the residence. Whilst Henderson's father was the one to admit to the ownership of the firearms, Henderson wrote in his online diary on January 10, 2025 “I had my house raided once they found a gun it was mine LOL. My dad took the blame.” His father has not yet clarified whether his or his son's version of this event is true. The final call was made by a member of the Henderson household in December 2024, however police did not visit the home itself. No further information has been provided surrounding this call. [20]
Following the release of Henderson's juvenile documents in May 2025, it was revealed that a fifth incident involving Henderson and the authorities occurred when child sexual abuse material was found on his electronic devices on November 06, 2023; police said he downloaded the material from the internet, as well as distributed it. Henderson was arrested but released the next day to his parents, under the condition that he would only use the internet for school work. The sexual abuse case was dropped on April 10, 2024, after Henderson had begun treatment at a mental health facility. The records also show Henderson was in court the morning of the shooting to sign paperwork relating to his suspension in October. This court hearing was in order to sign a binding document declaring that Henderson would be legally unable to purchase firearms and/or ammunition. [19] He was then dropped off at Antioch High School by his mother shortly afterward.
Records from Henderson's time as a student at nearby John F. Kennedy Middle School said that Henderson reportedly told something "troubling" to a teacher and staff found something described as "concerning" on his school laptop. [22] However, the nature of these incidents is confidential, as they both occurred in 2022 when Henderson was only fifteen. [21] In his online manifesto, Henderson considered targeting his former middle school, saying “Maybe I should set up bombs near JFK Middle School and Elementary school near my house as a diversion. To delay the police.” [8]
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