Transgender Nashville school shooter drew chilling images and cartoons

The 28-year-old who opened fire at a Nashville school on Monday, killing three nine-year-olds and three staff members, sold disturbing art online as a transgender artist.

Audrey Hale, 28, was shot dead by police after staging her attack. 

Police said she was transgender, and online used the pronouns ‘he/his’ – although they referred to Hale, who was born female, as ‘she’.

Hale ran an online art side, Audrey Hale Illustrations, and described her work as: ‘Commercial Illustration and Graphic Design’. 

Hale also had a social media account promoting the art, where Hale referred to herself by the name Aiden.

Hale’s work included a drawing of Jack Nicholson from The Shining, with lettering including his catchphrase ‘Where’s Johnny?’

Police released this image of Audrey Hale, 28, on Monday after she shot and killed six people in a Nashville school

Hale drew Jack Nicholson, with the catchphrase from The Shining: ‘Here’s Johnny!’

The film follows a writer and recovering alcoholic who begins to lose his mind and endanger his family when he becomes the caretaker of a ghost-infested hotel

Hale created this image, captioned ‘To be a kid forever and ever’

The drawing had the words ‘Red Rum’ written across it – murder, spelt backwards. The words were written on a mirror in a scene from the 1980 horror film.

Hale also created an image of some feet stretching up towards the sky, with a person in recline, perhaps swinging on a swing.

‘To be a kid forever and ever,’ the caption states.

Hale also appeared to draw cartoons for a children’s book, ‘Toys and Books’. 

Hale left a detailed manifesto and plan for the shooting at her home, and another in her car.  

John Drake, chief of Nashville police, told NBC News he believed ‘resentment’ lay at the core of her behavior, but didn’t speculate further.

Hale described herself as a graphic designer and illustrator

Hale’s art, featured on their illustration page

Hale’s art page, where work was displayed under the name Aiden

One of Hale’s pieces was entitled ‘Mad World’

Norma Hale (pictured center), the mother of Audrey Hale (pictured right), the transgender shooter who killed six people, including three nine-year-old children and three staff members, was herself an advocate for gun control on social media

Hale began her attack on Monday morning, driving into the school parking lot shortly before 10am.

At around 10.13am, Hale opened fire at The Covenant School, shooting and killing Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged nine. 

Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, head of school Dr. Katherine Koonce, 60, and custodian Mike Hill, 61, were also killed. 

Koonce worked alongside her daughter Anna at The Covenant School, who serves as a faculty/student assistant. 

Within 14 minutes, Hale was dead, as Nashville police revealed photos of the two officers – Rex Engelbart and Michael Collazo – who shot and killed Hale.

In a statement issued late Monday night, a spokesperson for the school said: ‘Our community is heartbroken. 

‘We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. 

‘We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.’

A photo of Audrey Hale inside The Covenant School during the shooting

This is the moment the doors to the school shattered as Audrey Hale blasted through them with one of the three guns she brought to kill six people

Hale was filmed stalking through a tiled area shortly after entering the school. She was shot dead 14 minutes after she broke into the school by two cops, after firing at them from an adjoining church

A 9 millimeter pistol was also being carried by the shooter during the Monday murders

Nashville police have released photos of the three weapons used in the shooting, which included two assault-type rifles

The second of two rifles used in the shooting has been pictured by Nashville Police

Norma Hale spoke to ABC News shortly after her daughter Audrey Hale, 28, was named as the shooter.

She said: ‘It’s very, very difficult right now. I think I lost my daughter today.’ Norma then requested privacy as her family struggles to cope with the magnitude of her late daughter’s actions.

Norma’s own posts decrying school shootings and calling for increased gun control have emerged in the wake of Hale’s massacre at the school she once attended.

On February 21, 2018, Norma posted a petition to make large-capacity gun magazines illegal to her page as a response to the horrors at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

And on March 8, 2018, she posted a petition to keep guns out of schools with the caption: ‘So important!’ 

Hale and her family were described as ‘very nice’ and ‘very religious.’ She’s pictured here with Audrey and her brother Scott

Night falls on Brightwood Avenue in Nashville, where the Hale family lives

Hallie Scruggs is seen with her father Chad Scruggs, the pastor at the presbyterian church affiliated with the school

Katherine Koonce, head of school (left), and Mike Hill, a custodian (right) were among those shot dead by Audrey Hale

Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, known as Cindy (right) is shown with her daughter Ellie. Peak was one of six people shot and killed on Monday in Nashville

Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire at a Nashville school on Monday, killing six

Hale’s LinkedIn profile suggested they were now living as a man

A high school friend of the Hale’s was shocked to learn the outgoing girl she ran track with was behind the massacre. 

The friend, who requested to remain anonymous, described Hale to DailyMail.com as ‘sweet and funny’.

The friend recalled her faint memories with Hale at the Nashville School of the Arts from around 2011 to 2014. 

‘What she did was unforgivable but when I knew her she was a sweet and funny girl,’ the friend told DailyMail.com. 

‘When she came out as trans (female to male) no one was surprised.

‘She really didn’t fit the school shooter archetype. 

‘I don’t know what would have happened to turn her into this person we see on the news. 

‘Everyone in my graduating class is losing it on Facebook. 

‘Really no one would have seen this coming.’