Originally announced as a woman by police, it was ascertained that Hale identified as transgender and used he/him pronouns.
Background
The Covenant School is a private Christian school located in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville. It educates students from pre-kindergarten to the sixth grade. It was founded in 2001 as a ministry of Nashville's Covenant Presbyterian Church, a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, and its enrollment is about 200 students.[5]
Shooting
External video
CCTV footage released by Nashville Police showing Hale entering and walking throughout the school armed during the shooting.
Hale drove a Honda Fit to the school, arriving at 9:54 a.m. CDT and parking it in the lot.[6][7] At 9:57, Hale sent a message to an old friend saying an earlier message he had sent was "basically a suicide note" and he[b] planned to die today.[8] The friend called a crisis hotline before contacting the Davidson County Sheriff's Office at 10:13.[9]
At 10:11, Hale shot through a set of glass side doors and entered the building.[10] He was armed with two rifles and a handgun.[11][12] At 10:13, police received a call about an active shooter.[13][14] Hale walked across the second floor of the school before opening fire. He shot multiple rounds into several classrooms, but no one was injured due to teachers fortifying doors and sheltering children in their rooms. Officers first arrived at the school at 10:24.[15][16] A teacher told one of the officers that the students were in lockdown and two were missing.[17]
Officers entered the building at 10:25, began evacuating the first floor, and searched each room for Hale. They heard gunshots coming from the second floor.[18] Five Metro Nashville police officers proceeded upstairs and saw him in a lobby area, firing through a window at arriving police vehicles. Two of the officers fired eight rounds, killing him at 10:27, 14 minutes after the initial 911 call was made.[19][20]
Victims
Six people—three students and three staff—were killed at random.[16] Five were pronounced dead at a hospital and one at the scene.[21] They were Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, all aged 9;[22][c] substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; custodian Mike Hill, 61; and head of school Katherine Koonce, 60. A police officer cut his hand on shattered glass.[23]
Aftermath
Actress Melissa Joan Hart was nearby when the shooting occurred and helped escort some of the fleeing children to safety.[24] She recounted the experience on Instagram a day later.[25]
A reunification center was set up at the Woodmont Baptist Church by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Students who fled the school arrived by school bus in the afternoon. Parents identified and retrieved their children, who were first counted separately.[26] Many people went to at least seven vigils for the casualties. A memorial at the school gathered items such as flowers, balloons, and stuffed animals.[27] The city of Nashville set up a fund to support those who were affected. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee also established one for The Covenant School, and GoFundMe created a list with verified similar fundraisers.[28][29]
Perpetrator
Audrey Hale, who also went by the name Aiden, was identified by the police as the shooter.[30][4] He was a 28-year-old Nashville resident with no criminal record[3] who had been a student at the school.[31] Police initially identified him as a woman but later said he was a transgender man, assigned female at birth, and used he/him pronouns.[3][32][33] He was an illustrator and graphic designer who graduated from the Nossi College of Art & Design in 2022.[10] A neighbor said he lived with his parents.[34] His art teacher recalled him coming out as transgender on Facebook in 2022,[35] although other associates of Hale could not recall such posts and said Hale did not talk about gender identity.[36]
Police Chief John Drake said Hale was under care for an emotional disorder at the time of the shooting and had legally purchased seven firearms, including three recovered from the shooting scene, between October 2020 and June 2022.[1] People who knew Hale said he had been having a difficult time dealing with the death of a classmate in the summer of 2022. Hale had known her since they were in middle school; they were basketball teammates.[37]
Investigation
The Metro Nashville Police Department is leading the investigation into the shooting, assisted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.[38] A search of the Hales' house found two shotguns, one of which was sawed-off, and other evidence.[39] Investigators also found a detailed map of the school with potential entry points and a manifesto.[18][30] He is believed to have undertaken reconnaissance before committing the attack.[40] Police said he had originally considered targeting another location but had decided not to carry out the attack due to the level of security on the premises.[30]
Reactions
U.S. President Joe Biden said, "We have to do more to stop gun violence. It's ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation... we have to do more to protect our schools, so they aren't turned into prisons."[5] He ordered flags on all federal buildings to be flown at half-staff.[41][42]
The Covenant School asked for privacy; it said its community was heartbroken and grieving tremendous losses.[27] Nashville Mayor John Cooper highlighted the long history of school shootings in the U.S. and offered his condolences to those affected.[18] Several notable Nashville musicians including Mickey Guyton, Margo Price, and Sheryl Crow offered their condolences and anger about continual school shootings.[43]
Representative Andy Ogles, whose district includes Nashville, tweeted, "We are sending our thoughts and prayers to the families of those lost. As a father of three, I am utterly heartbroken by this senseless act of violence."[44] Tennessee state representative Bob Freeman, a Democrat from Nashville whose daughter attended the same Sunday school class as one of the victims, called for gun reforms in the wake of the shooting.[45]
Three days after the shooting, thousands of protestors gathered at the Tennessee State Capitol to call for stricter gun control laws.[46][47] Some children held signs saying "I'm nine" in reference to the age of the children who were killed.[48] They chanted phrases including "No more silence" and "We have to do better", demanding that lawmakers take action to prevent shootings.[49]
Some conservatives in the United States claimed that the subsequent indictment of Donald Trump was deliberately timed in order to draw attention away from the shooting.[50][51][52][53]
Immediately after the shooting, posts misidentifying the shooter using an altered photo of comedian Sam Hyde circulated on social media.[54][55] A fake manifesto was also first shared anonymously on 4chan, and then posted by right-wing activists on Twitter. Two days after the shooting there had also been a string of hoax calls about an active shooters in schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with later calls targeting schools in Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Rhode Island.[56]
^The injured victim was a police officer who cut his hand on shattered glass.[2]
^Hale identified as a trans man and used he/him pronouns.
^Police Chief John Drake said in a press briefing on March 27, 2023, that one of the children was aged 8, while Public Affairs Director Don Aaron said that all the children were aged 9 in the same press briefing. Most sources say that all three were 9.