LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 05: Melissa Joan Hart attends the premiere of Disney's 'Ralph Breaks the Internet' at El Capitan Theatre on November 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Actress Melissa Joan Hart posted an emotional video to Instagram on Tuesday and revealed she helped kindergarteners escape the school shooting in Nashville on Monday.
Three 9-year-olds and three school staff members were killed at the Covenant School when the shooter, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, broke into the academy and began shooting.
The “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” star and Nashville resident shared her experience in an Instagram video to her nearly 2 million followers, a day later. She says her children – sons Mason, 17, Braden, 15, and Tucker, 10 – attend school “right next to” where the massacre occurred.
“We moved here from Connecticut where we were in 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,” the 46-year-old told her 1.7 million followers. “Luckily we are all okay.”
The “Melissa & Joey” star said she and her husband, Mark Wilkerson, didn’t hesitate for a second when trying to help the young children who “were trying to escape” the school.
The couple just happened to be on the way to their sons’ school for conferences, she says.
“My husband and I were on our way to school for conferences. Luckily our kids weren’t in today,” Hart tearfully explained.
She added:
“We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway. They were climbing out of the woods, they were trying to escape a shooter situation at their school. So we helped these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there.”
“We helped a mom reunite with her children and I just … I don’t know what to say. Enough is enough. Just pray, pray for the families,” she went on to say..
“Prayers today, Action tomorrow,” she captioned the minute-long clip. “This was too raw to post yesterday but wanted you to hear this story.”
Authorities say that on Monday morning, Audrey Hale shot her way into the Christian academy, armed with two assault rifles and a handgun.
Hale, described by investigators as a former student at the school, murdered the six victims before police fatally shot her, just 14 minutes after authorities received the call regarding an active shooter.
The victims were named Monday afternoon: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all age 9. Three adult school staffers were also killed: substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and custodian Mike Hill, both 61, and school headmistress Katherine Koonce, 60.
