(Trends Wide Spanish) — Audrey Hale, who attended Covenant Elementary, killed six people at the school Monday and carefully planned the attack, according to authorities.
His parents said the 28-year-old Hale was living with them and was under a doctor’s care for an “emotional disturbance,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at a news conference Tuesday.
Hale had several writings and maps of the school, as well as drawings of how to get inside, Drake said. Covenant Elementary is a private Christian school that offers classes from preschool to sixth grade and has about 200 students.
It is known that Hale left his home Monday morning with a red bag and that his mother did not know there were weapons inside, Drake said.
This undated photo provided by the Metro Nashville Police Department shows Audrey Elizabeth Hale. (Credit: Metro Nashville Police)
Authorities continue to work to answer questions about who Hale was and the motive for the school shooting. While the gender identity of the person responsible for the attack is unclear, police told Trends Wide that Hale was assigned the gender of female at birth and that she used “male pronouns” on social media.
Here’s what we know about Audrey Hale, a shooter at Covenant Elementary School in Nashville.
Hale texted a former classmate before the shooting
Less than 20 minutes before the shooting, Hale sent a creepy Instagram message to Averianna Patton, a former basketball teammate who told Trends Wide’s Don Lemon she’s “still trying to process it all.”
“I knew Hale well when we were kids,” Patton told Lemon on “Trends Wide This Morning” on Tuesday. Patton, now a Nashville radio host, said she has not been in a relationship with the person who attacked the school since they were minors and that she has only referred to Hale as Audrey or “her.”
“I didn’t know the adult person…I don’t know that side of her,” Patton told Lemon when asked about Hale.
Patton said she received the Instagram message at 9:57 a.m., which read: “Someday this will make more sense. I have left more than enough evidence. But something bad is about to happen,” according to screenshots sent to Trends Wide affiliate WTVF.
Patton said she wasn’t sure why Hale reached out to her. “I’m asking God the same question,” Patton told Lemon.
Hale legally obtained the guns he was carrying
Hale entered the school through a side door, Metropolitan Nashville Police Don Aaron said during a news conference. He was carrying at least two assault rifles and a pistol, Aaron added.
“He entered the school through a side entrance and made his way from the first floor to the second floor, while firing multiple shots,” Aaron recounted.
Hale had several rounds of ammunition and was prepared for a confrontation with police, she added.
Hale’s parents told authorities they knew he had bought and sold a gun and they believed that was it. But Hale had legally purchased seven firearms that were hidden in his home, Drake said.
Children from Covenant Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, hold hands as they are led to a reunification site at Woodmont Baptist Church after a shooting on March 27, 2023. (Credit: AP/Jonathan Mattise)
Drake also said investigations determined that maps of the school had been drawn with details about surveillance and entry points. “We have a map drawn of how all this was going to happen,” he said. Hale had mentioned another location in Nashville, Drake continued, but because of a “threat assessment” he conducted, that location had too much security and he ruled it out.
Hale was killed exchanging gunfire with police. “Two MNPD agents [Departamento de Policía Metropolitana de Nashville] who entered the building and followed the sound of the shots, confronted the person on the second floor and fatally shot him,” the institution wrote in a tweet.
The discovery of Hale’s writing
Officers outside Woodmont Baptist Church wait for children to be reunited with their families after a mass shooting at the Covenant school on March 27, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Credit: Seth Herald/Getty Images)
Police also found a statement, according to Drake. “We have a writing, we have some writings that we’re reviewing that pertain to this date,” he said. He added that the school was the only place Hale went.
When asked during an interview with NBC’s Nightly News about the writing and whether Hale’s identification as transgender played a role in the incident, Drake said that is still part of the investigation.
“It indicates that there were going to be shootings in various places and the school was one of them. In fact, there was a map of the school that detailed the surveillance, the points of entry and how the shooting was going to take place that day, ”he said of the writing.
Hale was a student at Covenant School.
School buses carrying children arrive at Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families after a mass shooting at the Covenant school on March 27, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Credit: Seth Herald/Getty Images)
Hale was once a student at Covenant Elementary School, according to initial police inquiries.
The chief of the Nashville Metropolitan Police told NBC’s Nightly News that Audrey Hale resented having to go to the Covenant school.
“There is some belief that there was some resentment about having to go to that school. I don’t have all the details yet, and that’s why this incident happened,” he said during the interview.
Drake said Hale targeted random people at the school. “Whoever he was in contact with, he shot them,” he said.
Drake told a news conference earlier that they found “a car near” the scene of the shooting that “gave them clues” as to who the suspect was.
Hale graduated from a Nashville art college
Hale graduated from Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville last year, the school’s president confirmed to Trends Wide. A LinkedIn profile says Hale freelanced in graphic design and part-time grocery shopping.
An online portfolio that appears to display a collection of Hale’s work includes images of professional logos, cartoon animals and an apparent self-portrait. One image included the phrase: “To Be A Kid (forever and ever)”, which in Spanish translates as: “Ser un niño (por siempre y para siempre)”.
Hale won Nossi’s “Most Improved” and “Class Participation” awards, according to university web postings.
A former vice president of the university, Byron Edwards, described Hale as “the sweetest thing.” “I’m shocked. My wife and I have been crying all day about it,” he said, adding that Hale “was a very shy and very good person.”
Haley wrote on Facebook about the death of her partner
Haley had also made Facebook posts sometime in the past two years about the death of a romantic partner, as well as a request to be called by the given name Aiden and with male pronouns, a former teacher told The New York Times. .
The person who carried out the attack had written that he missed his partner and posted photos of the two playing basketball together, said Maria Colomy, who taught Hale at the Nashville art school in 2017.
“She had been openly grieving about it on social media, and during the grieving is when she announced that she wanted to be addressed as a man,” Colomy told the Times. Her Facebook account has been deleted.
Colomy also recalled how Hale broke down in tears on the first day of class at art school when she had trouble creating a password for the online student portal, the Times reported. Colomy asked if she would help him out for a bit, and Hale did, she said. It was the only time she had shown such extreme emotion in class, but Colomy told the Times it was an unusually strong reaction to a mundane problem.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on Wednesday, March 29 with additional information. Jamiel Lynch and Christina Zdanowicz contributed to the report.
