Kelsea Ballerini recalls watching classmate being shot dead in school

2023-04-03

Kelsea Ballerini recalls watching her 15-year-old classmate being shot dead in high school as she honors Nashville shooting victims in emotional CMTs speech

Kelsea’s Central High School classmate Ryan McDonald was shot in the chest by a fellow student, Jamar Siler, then 15 in 2008
Jamar later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison
READ MORE: Who was Nashville Covenant School shooter?

Kelsea Ballerini recalled watching her classmate being shot dead in a high school shooting as she paid tribute to the victims of the Nashville shooting at Sunday’s 2023 CMT Awards.

Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire at Christian elementary school in Tennessee on Monday morning, killing six people including three nine-year-old students.

The killer, who came from a religious family and whose mother has advocated for stricter gun control, was shot dead by police on an upper floor of the school.

CMT host Ballerini fought back tears as she pleaded to end gun violence after the atrocity, while reflecting on the senseless killing of her friend Ryan McDonald, 15, in a school cafeteria in 2008.

She said: ‘On March 27, 2023, three 9-year-olds – Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs – along with Dr. Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, and Mike Hill, walked into the Covenant School and didn’t walk out.

Devastating: Kelsea Ballerini recalled watching her classmate being shot dead in a high school shooting as she paid tribute to the victims of the Nashville shooting at Sunday’s 2023 CMT Awards

Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire at a Christian elementary school in Tennessee on Monday morning, killing six people inducing three nine-year-old students

CMT host Ballerini fought back tears as she pleaded to end gun violence after the atrocity, while reflecting on the senseless killing of her friend Ryan McDonald, 15, (pictured) in a school cafeteria in 2008

‘The community of sorrow over this and the 130 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone stretches from coast to coast. I wanted to personally stand up here and share this moment, because on August 21, 2008, I watched Ryan McDonald, my 15-year-old classmate at Central High School, lose his life to a gun in our cafeteria.

‘Tonight’s broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of family’s friends, survivors, witnesses, and responders whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence.

‘I pray deeply that the closeness and the community that we feel through the next few hours of music can soon turn into action — like, action that moves us forward together to create change for the safety of our kids and our loved ones.’

Kelsea was a sophomore at Central High School, in Knoxville, Tennessee, when Ryan was shot in the chest by a fellow student, Jamar Siler, then 15.

The tragedy made headlines at the time: Ryan, a junior who lived with his grandmother, was one of several students in the school cafeteria the morning of August 21, 2008 when Jamar shot him.

According to the AP, Ryan was bullied because he had alopecia, which left him bald.

Jamar’s motive for shooting him was unclear, though some reports said that he and Ryan had had a disagreement on the bus that morning. His defense attorney claimed he had fetal alcohol syndrome.

Eyewitnesses said Ryan was ‘walking and holding his chest’ before he fell over, and there was ‘blood everywhere.’

‘Tonight’s broadcast is dedicated to the ever-growing list of family’s friends, survivors, witnesses, and responders whose lives continue to forever be changed by gun violence’

Jamar later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Kelsea describes watching the scene unfold that day in a poem in her book, which comes out on Tuesday.

‘His name was Ryan, and he died on the cafeteria floor from a gunshot wound to the chest. I can’t be too sure, but I think I saw him breathe his last breath,’ she writes.

‘I’m scared of loud noises, I’m triggered by the news, I’m terrified of guns, I’m sensitive in crowds. But I’m alive.

‘And because of a boy named Ryan, I know what a gift that is.’

Authorities did not immediately offer a motive for the killings, but investigators believe transgender Audrey Hale harbored ‘some resentment for having to go to that school’ as a child

Speaking on television this morning, Kelsea shared what she took away from what happened: ‘I think I became very aware of [the fact that] life is short.’

Authorities did not immediately offer a motive for Monday’s killings, but Nashville Police Chief John Drake said in an NBC News interview that investigators believed Hale harbored ‘some resentment for having to go to that school’ as a child.

Hale had no previous criminal record before the massacre, but is understood to have elaborately planned her attack – as evidenced by a ‘manifesto’ seized by FBI agents that the killer planned to carry out shootings at multiple locations.

The Covenant School was singled out for Hale’s attack, but that the individual victims – which included three 9-year-old children, the school’s top administrator, a substitute teacher and a custodian – were targeted at random.

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