Melissa Joan Hart helped children escape from Nashville school shooting
Actress Melissa Joan Hart arrives at The 40th Annual People's Choice Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on January 8, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Melissa Joan Hart acted as a hero to survivors escaping The Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.
Hart, who lives in Nashville with husband Mark Wilkerson and their three children, explained her experience in an emotional video that she posted on Instagram Tuesday.
"Hey guys," she began the video. "For those of you that know, I live in Nashville, and what's been going on here today, um … my kids go to school right next to a school where there was a shooting today."
She said, "We moved here from Connecticut where we were in a school a little ways down from Sandy Hook, so this is our second experience with a school shooting with our kids being in close proximity."
Hart assured her followers that she and her family were all fine, but said she and her husband did come into contact with some survivors as they fled the school.
"My husband and I were on our way to school for conferences," she explained, "and luckily our kids weren't in today, and we helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway."
Beginning to tear up, she continued, "They were climbing out of the woods, trying to escape the shooter situation at their school. So we helped all these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there, we helped a mom reunite with her children…."
She appeared flustered for a moment before holding a hand up to her head and saying, "I just don't know what to say anymore. It's just, enough is enough."
In the caption of her video, Hart explained why she made her post yesterday but kept referring to the shooting as happening "today."
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"Prayers today, Action tomorrow," she wrote. "This was too raw to post yesterday but wanted you to hear this story."
On Monday, 28-year-old Audrey Hale brought three guns to The Covenant School, a private grade school in Nashville, and opened fire.
Hale killed six people – three students, each 9 years old, a substitute teacher, a custodian and the head of the school.
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Police responded within minutes of the first 911 call alerting them to an active shooter on the Christian school campus, and officers killed Hale soon after arriving.
As of now, there is no known motive for the shooting, although it is known that Hale was a former student at The Covenant school. Her parents also told investigators that she'd been receiving treatment for an emotional disorder.