What we know about the Nashville Christian school shooter

Rebecca Olds
·2 min read
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Metro Nashville Police and federal law enforcement agencies search and investigate a house in the 3000 block of Brightwood Ave. following a mass shooting at Covenant School, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. The shooter was killed by police on the scene.
Metro Nashville Police and federal law enforcement agencies search and investigate a house in the 3000 block of Brightwood Ave. following a mass shooting at Covenant School, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. The shooter was killed by police on the scene. | Andrew Nelles, The Tennessean via Associated Press

On Monday, Metro Nashville Police Department responded and shot an active shooter at the Presbyterian Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

The shooter has since been identified by the police department as 28-year-old Nashville city resident Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

Six people, three children and three adults, died in the shooting.

Shots were first fired at 10:13 a.m. and officers arrived on the scene shortly after, according to the press release. Police said that Hale had three guns — two assault rifles and a pistol, two of which were legally attained — and entered the school by shooting a locked side door. She was shot and fatally wounded by two officers on the second floor of the school, as seen in the officers’ body cam footage.

Earlier that day, Hale had sent messages on Instagram to Averianna Patton, who was a former schoolmate, about her plans to die by suicide, per Nashville CBS affiliate WTVF. Both Hale and Patton had previously attended Covenant School, which was the target of the attack.

“One day this will make more sense,” Hale wrote, according to WTVF. “I've left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”

Patton called the Nashville Davidson Country Sheriff’s Office at 10:13 a.m. — the same time the shooting occurred — but was redirected to a nonemergency number, reported WTVF. Hale signed the messages to Patton with “Audrey (Aiden).”

Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake has said that the shooter was transgender, per NBC News.

“There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school,” Drake told NBC.

The shooter’s home was searched and detailed school maps with points of entry were found and “revealed that her attack was calculated and planned,” said the police report.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other partners are continuing the analysis of the case.

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