Last night (March 27), the Metro Nashville Police Department shared more information on the Covenant School female shooter and shooting, which claimed the lives of six individuals, including three children.
Law enforcement identified the female suspect as 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake later revealed that Hale was a former student at the Tennessee Christian facility.
And while authorities did not precisely say why Hale decided to open fire at the school, police did share that the shooting was most likely premeditated. They alluded that the 28-year-old had “some resentment for having to go to that school.” “We have a manifesto; we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” Drake told NBC News. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”
Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church/School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building. She was armed with 2 assault-type guns and a 9 millimeter pistol. pic.twitter.com/mIk2pDmCwQ
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) March 28, 2023
On Monday morning, Hale drove a Honda Fit to the Covenant Church/School on Burton Hills Drive. A surveillance camera caught her vehicle arriving and parking on the facility’s property. Once she made it to the school’s side doors, Hale shot through the glass to make her point of entry. The 28-year-old was heavily armed with three guns, two assault-type weapons, as she began roaming through the building.
While inside, Hale shot and killed Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9; William Kinney, 9; Hallie Scruggs, 9; Mike Hill, 61; Cynthia Peak, 61; and Katherine Koonce, 60. Dieckhaus, Kinney, and Scruggs were all students, while Hill was a custodian; Koonce, the head of the school; and Peak, a substitute teacher.
At 10:13 a.m., local authorities received a call about shots being fired. Law enforcement rushed to the scene, made entry, and began clearing the building, according to the MNPD news release. After hearing shots coming from the second level, a team of cops headed up there and made contact with Hale, who had shot at police cars from a window. Officers Rex Englebert and Michael Collazo “fired on Hale and fatally wounded her.”
GRAPHIC WARNING! This video contains officers making contact with Hale and firing shots.
As the mass shooting was reported live, local anchor Hannah McDonald shared that she covered an active shooter training event at the school in 2022. “It is a strange situation to be in right now,” McDonald told her NewsChannel 5 Nashville co-anchor, Vicki Yates. “And I cannot believe that this school, I said a year ago, did this [active] [shooter] training. I was there. And here they are now, about 13 months later, putting this into practice.”