Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale, 28, is transgender former student who plotted massacre in forensic detail and wrote-up manifesto explaining her actions
- Audrey Hale, 28, was transgender and identified as a woman
- She was an alumnus of the school where she killed six, including three kids
- Hale left a manifesto and a map that included a second school to attack
The private school shooter in Nashville who killed six, including three nine-year-old children and three staff members, is a transgender woman and alumnus of the school who wrote out their plans in a detailed manifesto.
Audrey Hale, 28, also allegedly had planned out an attack on another school but decided not to attack there after believing there was too much security, according to Nashville Police Chief John Drake in a Monday afternoon press conference.
At around 10.13am, she opened fire at The Covenant School, shooting and killing nine-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.
Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, and custodian Mike Hill, 61, were also killed.
Cops said Hale was transgender, although they haven’t specified further details. She was born female, but a LinkedIn profile believed to be hers uses he/him pronouns, suggesting Hale was living as a man.
Audrey Hale (pictured), the private school shooter in Nashville who killed six, including three nine-year-old children and three staff members, is a transgender woman and alumnus of the school who wrote out their plans in a detailed manifesto
It’s unclear what Hale’s motive was, but police believe she attended the school at some point.
The shooter has left behind a manifesto, the chief said, that Drake thinks will give them a motive into the massacre, the 129th in the United States in 2023.
She had detailed, drawn maps of the school and had been surveilling it, according to police.
‘We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this day,’ Drake said. ‘We have a map drawn out of how this was all gonna to take place. There’s right now a theory that we may put out later but it’s not confirmed. We’ll put that out as soon as we can.’
When asked if how Hale identified might impact the motive, Drake paused before saying: ‘We can give you that at a later time. There is some theory to that, we’re investigating all the leads.’
According to the chief, Hale and no criminal history and said he did not know of any history of mental illness, though investigators were still looking into that.
Drake also said that Hale had plans to attack another school in the Nashville area.
‘There was another location that was mentioned but because of a threat assessment by the suspect, too much security, they decided not to,’ he said.
The shooter has left behind a manifesto, the chief said, that Drake thinks will give them a motive into the massacre
Students from the Covenant School get off a bus to meet their parents at the reunification site at the Woodmont Baptist Church Monday
Metro Nashville Police Department and officials on the scene outside the Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sandy Durham, a neighbor of Hale’s who said she had known her ‘since she was a baby’ was shocked and said there were no warning signs that this could happen.
‘Never. She was very sweet. I don’t know what happened. It’s very scary,’ Durham told The Daily Beast.
Sean Brashears, a next door neighbor, said he used to play basketball with Hale in his driveway and said she was a ‘normal, nice person. Maybe a little quiet.’
‘If I had to imagine, Audrey’s parents are probably just as shocked as everybody in the neighborhood is…It just doesn’t seem real,’ he told The Daily Beast.
He added that, knowing the Hale family, it doesn’t seem like Audrey would have ever even been influenced by gun culture.
‘There’s nothing that would have led me to believe that she was capable of such a thing or that she or anybody in that family would have access to, much less ever used, a gun.’
‘They just don’t seem like the family that, like, is around guns. They’re not talking about going to a gun range or they’re not going hunting.’
Six people – including three children – are dead after a white female shooter opened fire at a private school in Nashville, killing three nine-year-old children and three staff members.
The small school is run by a church and does not employ a school resource officer.
A terrified child presses her hand against the glass of a school bus window after being evacuated from The Covenant School
Children hold hands as they leave The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday after a female shooter opened fire, killing three kids and three staff members
Terrified children peer out the windows of their school bus as they wait to be driven away from the school after the shooting
Children from The Covenant School run past an ambulance on Monday after a female shooter opened fire, killing three staff members and three students, before being shot by police
A father carries his son out of The Covenant School in Nashville after a shooter killed three students and two staff members before being shot dead
Shortly before 10.13am, the woman entered the school through a side door and began opening fire on the second floor.
Katherine Koonce, head of school, was among those shot dead by Hale
It’s unclear how she gained access to the building. Police say all of the doors were locked.
Police arrived at the scene and heard the gunshots coming from the 2nd floor.
By 10,.27am, she had been shot dead. She was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
Parents have been told to collect their children from a nearby church, but no other information has been given.
‘I know this is probably the worst day of everyone’s lives.
‘I can’t tell you how sympathetic we are,’ a Metro Police officer was heard telling the parents as they waited at a nearby church for updates.
Neighbors of the school watched as parents frantically rushed to the scene to find their children.
‘Everyone as a parent are terrified.
Mike Hill, a facilities worker at Covenant Presbyterian Church, was one of the victims
9-year-old Hallie Scruggs is seen with her brothers and her parents, Jada and Chad Scruggs, in family photos froom their Facebook pages
Hale’s home is pictured. Sandy Durham, a neighbor of Hale’s who said she had known her ‘since she was a baby’ was shocked and said there were no warning signs that this could happen.
Sean Brashears, a next door neighbor, said he used to play basketball with Hale in his driveway and said she was a ‘normal, nice person. Maybe a little quiet.’
Parents collect their children from The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday
A family prays together after being reunited outside The Covenant School in Nashville
A man carries a child at the reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist church after a school shooting, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Nashville
A man walks with children at a reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist Church after a shooting at The Covenant School
Adults walk with a child at a reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist Church
Adults walk with a child at a reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist Church after the shooting
A man takes two children home from The Covenant School after Monday’s shooting
Two adults escort terrified kids away from the Covenant School on Monday after a school shooting
Children and adults wait outside The Covenant School in Nashville following the shooting
Parents gathered in the sanctuary waiting for updates on whether or not their children were among those harmed
A police officer walks by an entrance to The Covenant School after a shooting in Nashville
Terrified children hold hands as they leave The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday after a shooter opened fire, killing three children, before being shot dead by police
A woman holds her young child after a school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday. Three children were killed by the woman
‘You don’t send you kid to school thinking there would be an active shooting, especially in this area.
‘Just hearing as a parent myself it’s truly overwhelming. Seeing all the parents run up the hill to see if their children are okay,’ Lisa Debusk told DailyMail.com.
Susan Perkins, 68, told DailyMail.com that her daughter and step-grandson were in the school at the time of the shooting, and unhurt.
Her daughter is a communications director and her step-grandson is a sixth grade student.
‘I talked to my daughter and she was so busy she just couldn’t talk, just enough to say she was okay,’ said the mother, who lives in Knoxville, TN.
‘I’m just shaking with fear and so sorry that this happened,’ she said. ‘I just can’t hardly believe that three children got killed.’
She described Covenant School as a small, tightknit, Christian school where everyone knows and supports each other.
‘I did not think it would ever hap to my school and I would like to see the guns off the street,’ Perkins said.
Terrified parents wait for their kids at The Covenant School in Nashville. The woman was killed by police
Parents rushed to the scene to collect their children after the incident on Monday morning
Children pour out of The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday
Metro Nashville Police officers gather near The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., following a deadly shooting Monday, March 27, 2023
Alison Grippo, 40, told DailyMail.com that she has three children in Covenant School who survived.
As word spread of the mass shooting, she like other parents were directed to nearby Woodmont Baptist Church, set up as a meeting point as they anxiously waited for their kids.
‘She said her own children, like many others, were still speaking with investigators.
‘We’re waiting to be reunited with our kids,’ Grippo told DailyMail.com. ‘This is just hard to understand or put into words. We praise God in all situations, good and bad.’
There are around 33 staff members in the school and some 210 students.
Many of those students were seen running from the building today in their school uniforms after the shooting began.
Other schools in the area have gone into lockdown as a precaution, but there is not thought to be any additional threat.
Parents are now gathering at a church next to the school. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn was among the first to share her condolences.
‘Chuck & I are heartbroken to hear about the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville.
‘My office is in contact with federal, state, & local officials, & we stand ready to assist.
Parents gather in the sanctuary of Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire, killing three students
At the National League of Cities conference on Monday, First Lady Jill Biden said: ‘I am truly without words. Our children deserve better. We stand with Nashville in prayer’
‘Thank you to the first responders working on site. Please join us in prayer for those affected.’
Sen. Bill Haggerty tweeted: ‘Devastated and heartbroken about the tragic news at Covenant School.
‘I’m grateful to law enforcement and first responders for their heroic actions.’
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee tweeted: ‘I am closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant…as we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.’
At a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the shooting was proof the ongoing need for stricter gun reform.
First Lady Jill Biden, speaking at the National League of Cities conference on Monday, told the crowd: ‘We just learned about another shooting in Tennessee – a school shooting.
‘I am truly without words. Our children deserve better. We stand with Nashville in prayer.’
Monday’s shooting is the 129th shooting this year.
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