It has been revealed that the “quiet” 28-year-old ex-art student who allegedly stormed a private Christian school in Nashville on Monday morning and killed three children and three adults is a former student who went to the church-affiliated institution.
The suspect was identified as Audrey Elizabeth Hale by the Nashville Metro Police Department. She was shot and killed by police barely 14 minutes after The Covenant School initially called to report an active shooter.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, three 9-year-old pupils, Katherine Koonce, the school’s head of school, Cynthia Peak, a sub, and Mike Hill, the groundskeeper, were all identified as the fatalities.
Hale was autistic but high functioning, a family friend told The Daily Beast on Monday night.
And just lately came out as transgender, identifying as he/him, the source claimed, requesting anonymity to prevent more family trouble.
Police initially identified the suspect as a 28-year-old Caucasian woman, but Hale’s LinkedIn profile featured he/him pronouns, according to a source who confirmed this to The Daily Beast. Hale is transgender, Nashville Police Chief John Drake revealed at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
In addition to a “manifesto” and “some writings that pertain to this date, the actual incident… of how this was all going to take place,” Drake claimed that a search of Hale’s home uncovered “maps drawn of the school, in detail, so, surveillance, entry points, et cetera.”
Police tweeted that they discovered “more stuff authored by Hale” inside the Honda Fit that Hale had driven and parked at the school’s campus on Friday morning.
Drake stated that while there is a working theory regarding a potential motive, it has not yet been verified. Covenant was “the only school that was targeted,” according to Drake, who added, “[t]here was another location that was mentioned.”
“But because of a threat assessment by the suspect, too much security, they decided not to,” Drake said. Drake claimed that Hale used his weapons to shoot through a closed side entry to the school while carrying an AR-style rifle, an AR-style pistol, and a handgun. He claimed that two weapons were “obtained legally, locally here.”
Reached by phone, Hale’s mother, Norma Fort Hale, told, “It’s very difficult now, we ask for privacy. I can’t talk now; I think I lost my daughter today.”
According to Hale’s LinkedIn profile, she established a freelance illustration and graphic design business last year after graduating and working at Madison, Tennessee’s Nossi College of Art. According to the school’s website, Hale received a prize for being “best improved” in 2015 at Nossi.
Police searched a house about three miles from the school hours after the shooting. The ATF allegedly told a neighbor, a family friend of the Hales, that they were there “to observe what was going on next door [at the Hale house],” according to Sandy Durham.
“I do know Audrey, I’ve known her since she was a baby. I had just gotten out of the shower when all of this started happening. I didn’t really know anything more than that. Something was going on next door. It’s just tragic for everybody.
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The sweet children that were hurt, killed, the adults. All of it,” she told The Daily Beast. When asked if Hale had shown any red flags, Durham said, “Never. She was incredibly charming. I have no idea what transpired. It’s absolutely scary.
The Hales have been “our neighbors on that block for pretty much forever,” according to another neighborhood resident who asked only to be recognized by his first name, Sean. as long as I can recall being a child growing up.
Hale was “just a regular, pleasant guy. Perhaps a little quiet,” he said.
“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 said.
“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.”
He claimed that Hale visited his family’s driveway basketball hoop to shoot baskets when he was a kid. Another neighbor reported hearing a “big boom” as cops entered the family’s home to The Daily Beast.
“My son and I were having lunch around 1 o’clock, and we heard a huge boom that shook our house and had no idea what it was,” said Abigail Ashford-Grooms, who said she lives several doors down.
“And when we peeked out the door, there were undercover police cars and ambulances and fire trucks blocking the street. And then we noticed all of our neighbors start to creep out at the same time.”
Just after 10 a.m. on Monday, Hale entered Covenant, a school with around 200 preschools through sixth-grade students, using a side entry, according to authorities.
Before a squad of five Nashville police officers got on the scene and quickly engaged the gunman on the second floor, Hale fired numerous shots while traveling from the first to the second story.
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