A student at Antioch High School in Tennessee says he saw people “getting shot on the ground” as he and his classmates raced for the building’s exits during the fatal attack that unfolded there yesterday. 

The accounts describing the chaotic scenes that transpired inside the Nashville school Wednesday are emerging as investigators are looking for a motive behind the attack. Police say a 17-year-old student shooter – who had posted “very concerning” writings online – killed Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, and wounded another student before turning the gun on himself. 

“We were in the cafeteria just getting lunch like every other day, and we kept hearing gunfire in the front of the cafeteria and then people looked around screaming. We ran behind the garbage cans,” one student told WSMV, recounting the moment shots rang out. 

“I saw people getting shot on the ground, bleeding,” he added, mentioning how he and his friends crouched down and ran to a side door to flee the cafeteria. 

The Metro Nashville Police Department responds Wednesday to the shooting at Antioch High School. (X/ @MNPDNashville)

The father of Josselin Corea Escalante, identified by WTVF as German Corea, said to the station that “Every day I told her how much I loved her.” 

“It’s not fair,” he reportedly added. 

Escalante’s aunt, Maria Corea, also said to WTVF that “She was a very calm girl and well-behaved.” 

Dasia Pleitez prays as she waits for her daughter at a unification site after a shooting at Antioch High School on Wednesday. (AP/George Walker IV)

“She had good grades in school. She was a girl who loved her parents and all her family,” Corea added.