Editor’s Notice: This story accommodates graphic descriptions of violence.
CNN
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As a heartbroken Nashville group grapples with the mass taking pictures that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old youngsters and three adults at a non-public Christian college, police are uncovering extra particulars concerning the 28-year-old shooter.
The assault unfolded over 14 minutes Monday morning at The Covenant Faculty, with the closely armed shooter firing into the elementary college to realize entry and killing six individuals earlier than being fatally shot by responding cops.
The mother and father of the shooter, recognized as Audrey Hale, advised police they knew Hale had purchased and offered one weapon and believed that was the extent of it, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake stated Tuesday.
However Hale, who was underneath take care of an emotional dysfunction, had legally purchased seven firearms that have been hidden at residence, Drake stated. Three of these weapons, together with an AR-style rifle, have been used within the assault Monday.
Police have stated the assault was pre-planned, discovering that Hale had detailed maps of the varsity in addition to writings associated to the taking pictures and had scouted a second attainable assault location in Nashville. Hale’s childhood buddy additionally revealed the shooter despatched her disturbing messages simply earlier than the assault.
The assault marked the nineteenth taking pictures at a college or college thus far in 2023 that left at the very least one particular person wounded, a CNN rely reveals. It was additionally the deadliest US college taking pictures in almost a 12 months, for the reason that Might assault in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 useless.
As terrified schoolchildren and academics have been led to security out of The Covenant Faculty Monday, phrase unfold of those that have been misplaced: three younger youngsters, the top of their college, its custodian and a substitute trainer.
“All of Tennessee was harm yesterday, however some mother and father awoke with out youngsters, youngsters awoke with out mother and father and with out academics, and spouses awoke with out their family members,” stated Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee, who additionally misplaced an in depth household buddy within the taking pictures.
The shooter despatched a disturbing Instagram message to a childhood buddy simply earlier than 10 a.m. Monday, saying “I’m planning to die as we speak” and that it could be on the information, the buddy Averianna Patton advised CNN on Tuesday.
Patton, a Nashville radio host, advised CNN she was the shooter’s childhood basketball teammate however they hadn’t spoken in years and is not sure why she obtained the message. Patton stated she then known as a suicide prevention line and the Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Workplace at round 10:13 a.m.
That’s the identical time police in Nashville say they received a 911 name of an lively shooter inside The Covenant Faculty.
Writings left behind by Hale revealed the assault “was calculated and deliberate,” police stated. The shooter had a drawing of methods to enter the constructing and “assaults that will happen,” Drake stated at a Tuesday information convention.
The attacker was “ready for confrontation with legislation enforcement, ready to do extra hurt than was truly completed,” Drake stated Monday.
Former teammate of Nashville college shooter received uncommon Instagram messages earlier than rampage
Hale had focused the varsity, however it’s believed the scholars have been fired upon at random, police stated.
“This college, this church constructing was a goal of the shooter, however we’ve got no info at current to point that the shooter was particularly concentrating on any one of many six people who have been murdered,” police spokesman Don Aaron stated Tuesday.
Whereas the motive stays underneath investigation, police say Hale in some unspecified time in the future was a scholar at The Covenant Faculty.
Hale graduated from Nossi Faculty of Artwork & Design in Nashville final 12 months, the president of the varsity confirmed to CNN. Hale labored as a contract graphic designer and a part-time grocery shopper, a LinkedIn profile says.
Police have referred to Hale as a “feminine shooter,” and at a night information convention added Hale was transgender. Hale used male pronouns on a social media profile, a spokesperson advised CNN when requested to make clear.
Armed with three firearms, the shooter received into the varsity by firing by glass doorways and climbing by to get inside, the place the shooter could possibly be seen strolling by the hallways and pointing an assault-style weapon, surveillance video launched by Metro Nashville Police reveals.
The primary name concerning the taking pictures got here in at 10:13 a.m. and police rushed to the varsity, arriving at 10:24 a.m., in line with the police chief.
Police on Tuesday launched body-camera footage from the 2 officers who opened fireplace on the shooter after speeding into the varsity on Monday.
The footage, from the body-worn cameras of officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo, begins with Engelbert arriving on the college to discover a lady outdoors who says the varsity is on lockdown however there are two youngsters unaccounted for.
After the officer is given a key to open a door into the constructing, a gaggle of 5 officers enter the varsity amid wailing fireplace alarms and instantly go into a number of empty lecture rooms rooms to search for the suspect.
As they clear the rooms, officers hear gunfire from upstairs and rush as much as the second flooring, the place Engelbert, armed with an assault-style rifle, fired a number of instances at an individual close to a big window, who dropped to the bottom, the video reveals.
Collazo then appeared to shoot the particular person on the bottom 4 instances with a handgun, yelling “Cease shifting!” The officers then strategy the particular person, transfer a gun away and radio “Suspect down! Suspect down!”
The shooter was useless at 10:27 a.m., Aaron stated.
As a non-public college operated by a church, there was no college useful resource officer assigned by town to protect the varsity, in line with Aaron.
Requested concerning the roughly 11-minute hole between when police obtained the primary name of an lively shooter and when officers arrived on the college, the police chief advised reporters, “From what I’ve seen, I don’t have a specific drawback with it. However we all the time wish to get higher. We all the time wish to get there in two or three minutes and so there’s lots of issues that might have occurred – site visitors was locked down, and so on.”
The victims of the taking pictures included three 9-year-old college students: Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of lead church pastor Chad Scruggs. Additionally killed have been Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute trainer; Katherine Koonce, the 60-year-old head of the varsity; and Mike Hill, a 61-year-old custodian, police stated.
“Our group is heartbroken,” The Covenant Faculty, a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, stated in a press release.
“We’re grieving large loss and are in shock popping out of the phobia that shattered our college and church,” the varsity stated.
Sissy Goff, considered one of Koonce’s pals, went to the reunification heart after the taking pictures and suspected one thing was flawed when she didn’t see Koonce there.
“Figuring out her, she’s so sort and powerful and such a voice of purpose and simply safety for those that she would have been there in entrance dealing with every thing, so I had a sense,” Goff stated.
Peak, a substitute trainer, was finest pals with Tennessee First Woman Maria Lee and was imagined to go over to the Lees’ residence for dinner Monday night, Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee stated in a video assertion Tuesday.
“Maria awoke this morning with out considered one of her finest pals, Cindy Peak,” the governor stated.”Cindy and Maria and Katherine Koonce have been all academics on the identical college and have been household pals for many years,” he added.
Some households of the victims have launched statements as they mourn their loves ones. Hill was described as a father of seven youngsters and grandfather to 14 who beloved to prepare dinner and spend time along with his household, his household stated in a press release obtained by CNN affiliate WSMV.
Evelyn’s household launched a press release calling her “a shining mild on this world.”
The town of Nashville is planning a vigil on Wednesday night time to mourn these misplaced within the mass taking pictures, in line with Nashville Mayor John Cooper. It’s going to happen at One Public Sq. park at 5:30 p.m. native time.
“It will be important that we stand collectively on this darkish day for Nashville,” he stated within the tweet. The town has additionally arrange a fund to assist help the survivors of the taking pictures, Cooper stated.