A nine-year-old girl who was one of the three schoolchildren gunned down by the Nashville shooter inside a Christian school was desperately trying to stop the massacre by pulling on a fire alarm when she was murdered, according to a report.
Evelyn Dieckhaus was eulogized Monday night at a vigil at Woodmont Christian Church, where her older sister, Eleanor, a fifth grader, will soon be baptized.
“I don’t want to be an only child,” Eleanor said in a heartbreaking response that moved many to tears.
The Dieckhaus family issued a statement lamenting the indescribable loss that occurred inside the Covenant School, a pre-K through 6 school affiliated with Covenant Presbyterian Church.
This little girl tried saving her friends by pulling a fire alarm when she heard the Nashville shooter coming.
She was shot and killed.
Her name was Evelyn Dieckhaus.
HERO. pic.twitter.com/iFa9c0gJhv
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 28, 2023
“Our hearts are completely broken,” the family said. “We cannot believe this has happened. Evelyn was a shining light in this world. We appreciate all the love and support but ask for space as we grieve.”
One local woman who taught both Dieckhaus sisters in Sunday school at Woodmont Christian Church wrote an online tribute for Evelyn, recalling the child as “adorable.”
“One of the 9-year-old victims of the Nashville school shooting goes to my church,” Sarah Drury, a Sunday School teacher at Woodmont Christ Church, wrote in an online tribute. “Her name is Evelyn Dieckhaus. She was adorable. I taught her equally angelic big sister in Sunday school.”
“Her mom Katy volunteered in our children’s ministry … such a sweet Christian family,” she continued. “We had a prayer vigil tonight at our church. We are, the whole city, saturated in grief. Now. It’s time to marry prayer and grief with action.”
The Covenant School said it was “shattered” by the shooting.
“Our community is heartbroken. We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing,” the school said in a statement.
The killer was a 28-year-old woman who identifies as a man and who was shot by heroic police who stormed the school, confronting her on the second floor. The Daily Wire is not naming the killer, in keeping with a policy aimed at depriving mass shooters of the notoriety studies show they often crave.