NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The killer behind the January 2025 shooting at Nashville’s Antioch High School appears to have had “handlers” associated with violent extremist groups who were egging him on, an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation has discovered.
Solomon Henderson, 17, left behind a recording in which he attributed the deadly school shooting to Maniac Murder Cult and 764, investigators say. Both groups target children online around the globe, leaving behind a trail of victims.
Antioch High School student Dayana Escalante, 16, became one of those victims.
"Once we saw how many chat rooms he was involved in, how many social media platforms he had, the lengths he went to cover it up, we realized it was a lot bigger than we could ever imagine,” said Metro Police Capt. Chris Dickerson.
Dickerson oversees the police division that focuses on crimes related to extremists.
“So, when it comes to the Antioch shooting, he was targeted at a very young age,” Dickerson said. “This wasn't something that happened overnight. It was cultivated through years."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates followed up, "You say targeted. Someone was using him as a pawn in their game?"
"Yes, sir,” the police captain answered, “a pawn, using him as a weapon, an extension of what they wanted to happen."
Dr. Amy Cooter, who studies extremism, has carefully followed the Antioch High School shooter's digital trail. She is one of the founders of the Institute for Countering Digital Extremism.
We asked Cooter, "Is there any doubt in your mind that he had somebody somewhere egging him on?"
“No," she answered. "Whether that person knew exactly what he was planning and for what date, I don't know. But I think there were several people in his ear saying, ‘Yes, commit some violence, commit some attack, this is a good thing.’"
Solomon Henderson, they believe, had become ensnared in a dark web known as "nihilistic violent extremism," a network of various groups, some with neo-Nazi connections.
Among those groups are ones like the Maniacs Murder Cult, Order of Nine Angles and No Lives Matter.
They target kids in online spaces – some as young as elementary school – hoping to get control of their minds and make them do their bidding.
"Teaching them to hate themselves to hurt themselves, using some of those early actions to blackmail them into hurting other people in some cases,” Cooter continued.
In his manifesto, Henderson thanked the people he called "my handlers." He added, "You helped me along with my journey through the process of HATE. You taught me how to hate, and it will change the world."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Capt. Dickerson, "And you think he did have handlers who were kind of calling some of the shots?"
“Yes, yes, I do,” Dickerson responded. "That's why he posted certain things. That's why he streamed portions of the event. We believe he was trying to appease them."
In fact, Dickerson suspects another incident where Henderson had brought a boxcutter to school and threatened another student may have been one of his tests.
"We believe that was them working up to see how far can we get him to go, just what level of violence can we get him to commit or influence him on?" Dickerson added.
Investigators believe one of those influencers may have been a man known as "Commander Butcher." Michail Chkhikvishvili from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia led the neo-Nazi extremist group known as the Maniacs Murder Cult.
That was one of the two groups Henderson mentioned in his recording.
"That's something we see that a lot of these groups are tied to other countries – and that's what's scary,” Dickerson said. “You can have a kid or a child or even adult speaking with someone, and they're in a completely different country."
Maniacs Murder Cult has now been classified as a terrorist organization by Canada and the United Kingdom.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Dr. Cooter, "Is some of this potentially state-sponsored?"
"Connecting those dots on paper is a little tricky,” she said, “but we have reason to think that some of this is intentional in coming from outside the United States."
"Countries that want to sew chaos in our society?"
"Yes, absolutely."
We followed up, "But you're not quite sure which countries at this point?"
"We have a good idea,” she answered. “ Proving it is a different story."
In the case of Michail Chkhikvishvili – the man accused of influencing Henderson – he recently pleaded guilty to federal charges of devising a plot "to murder racial minorities and others in New York City on New Year's Eve by dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison."
"This has really been heavily influenced by something we call ‘militant accelerationism’ – which just means that there are people who think society as it exists is really bad, that it's coming to some kind of close and it's their job to make that end of society happen even faster,” Cooter said.
It's a theme that's repeated throughout Solomon Henderson's manifesto, including the words: “Accelerate. Accelerate. Accelerate.”
"First of all, that's clearly an accelerationist call with the text, right? This idea that society should meet its end sooner rather than later,” Cooter continued.
“These folks don't know what's going to come after that cataclysm, but their argument is it must be better than whatever we have right now."
We also had questions about a drawing that the shooter left behind.
On the character's arm is a reference to another extremist group – O9A, the Order of Nine Angles – a group that combines neo-Nazism with Satanism and the dark world of the occult. There was also a reference to “RAPE” with a Nazi swastika.
“So, it's signaling Nazism. It's signaling that 09A connection. It's also signaling rape as an act, which is seen as a disruptive tactic for some accelerationists, something that's socially harmful, something that's promoted in some of these spaces," Cooter explained.
Capt. Dickerson said his team is “pouring every resource we can into identifying the signs and symbols because they are out there." They are making investigating this online extremism facing our children a top priority, hoping to interrupt the next Solomon Henderson before he or she becomes an instrument of these extremists' hate.
We asked the veteran investigator, "The more you learn about these groups, what is your biggest fear?"
"As a parent as well and obviously as law enforcement, my biggest fear is that we're gonna have another incident like a Covenant or like Antioch,” Dickerson answered, referring to Nashville’s most recent school shootings.
“It's that we're gonna miss something during the investigation that we can't stop it before it happens."
TUESDAY AT 6 PM: What parents need to know about how these groups work
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Do you have information that would help me with my investigation? Send me your tips: phil.williams@newschannel5.com
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