Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale is transgender former student who plotted ... trends now
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.
Hale is transgender and identifies as a woman, according to Drake. A LinkedIn page connected to an Audrey Hale in Nashville used 'he/him' pronouns.
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 (pictured) in a Monday afternoon press conference
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.
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