The 28-year-old who killed three youngsters and three adults at a personal Christian faculty in Nashville was below look after an emotional dysfunction and had legally purchased seven firearms that had been hidden at residence, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake mentioned Tuesday.
The dad and mom of the shooter, Audrey Hale, spoke to police and mentioned they knew Hale had purchased and bought one weapon and believed that was the extent of it.
“The dad and mom felt (Hale) mustn't personal weapons,” the chief mentioned.
On Monday morning, Hale left residence with a purple bag, and the dad and mom requested what was inside however had been dismissed, Drake mentioned.
Three of the weapons had been used within the assault Monday. The seven weapons had been bought between October 20, 2020 and June 6, 2022, police spokesman Don Aaron mentioned.
Police additionally mentioned Tuesday they didn't know a motive. The shooter focused the varsity and church within the assault however didn't particularly goal any of the six individuals killed, Aaron mentioned. Hale’s writings talked about a mall close to the varsity as one other attainable goal, he added.
Stay updates: Nashville Covenant College taking pictures
The information convention got here a day after Hale, a former scholar at The Covenant College, stormed into the elementary faculty and killed six individuals earlier than being fatally shot by responding law enforcement officials.
The assault was the nineteenth taking pictures at an American faculty or college in 2023 wherein no less than one particular person was wounded, in line with a CNN tally, and the deadliest because the Could assault in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 useless. There have been 42 Okay-12 faculty shootings since Uvalde.
The victims included three 9-year-old college students: Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of lead church pastor Chad Scruggs. Additionally killed had been Cynthia Peak, 61, believed to be a substitute trainer; Katherine Koonce, the 60-year-old head of the varsity; and Mike Hill, a 61-year-old custodian, police mentioned.
“All of Tennessee was damage yesterday,” Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee mentioned in a video assertion Tuesday. The governor mentioned his spouse Maria Lee was greatest associates with one of many victims, Peak, who was supposed to return over to the Lees’ residence for dinner Monday night.
“We will all agree on one factor — that each human life has nice worth. We are going to act to stop this from occurring once more. There's a clear want in all of us, whether or not we agree on the motion steps or not, that we should work to seek out methods to guard in opposition to evil,” Lee mentioned within the five-minute video.
Over the course of Tuesday, the main points of the heinous assault got here into view as police launched bodycam footage of the deadly taking pictures of the attacker, Hale’s childhood good friend revealed the shooter’s disturbing messages and those that knew the victims mirrored on their misplaced family members.
Police launch bodycam footage of taking pictures
Earlier Tuesday, police launched body-camera footage from the 2 officers who rushed into the varsity on Monday and fatally shot the mass shooter.
The footage is from the body-worn cameras of officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo, who police mentioned fatally shot the attacker on Monday at 10:27 a.m. The video begins with Engelbert arriving on the faculty to discover a girl outdoors who says the varsity is on lockdown however there are two youngsters unaccounted for.
One other faculty official is seen handing the officer a key to open a door into the constructing, and a bunch 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.
They heard gunfire on the second flooring and so hustled up the steps because the bangs grew louder, the video reveals. The officers approached the sound of gunfire and Engelbert, armed with an assault-style rifle, rounded a nook and fired a number of instances at an individual close to a big window, who dropped to the bottom, the video reveals.
Collazo then pushed ahead and appeared to shoot the particular person on the bottom 4 instances with a handgun, yelling “Cease shifting!” The officers lastly approached the particular person, moved a gun away after which radioed “Suspect down! Suspect down!”
The video provides additional perception into the timeline of the taking pictures and the police response. The primary 911 name in regards to the taking pictures got here in at 10:13 a.m., and the shooter was killed 14 minutes later, in line with police. The bodycam footage of Engelbert coming into the varsity and taking pictures the attacker lasts about three to 4 minutes.
The Covenant College is a personal Christian faculty educating about 200 college students from Pre-Okay via sixth grade. The college is a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, its web site states.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper informed CNN the swift police response prevented additional catastrophe.
“It may have been worse with out this nice response,” the mayor of the police response. “This was very deliberate and quite a few websites had been investigated.”
The police chief equally praised the response as swift.
“I hoped today would by no means ever come right here within the metropolis. However we'll by no means wait to make entry and to go in and to cease a menace particularly when it offers with our kids,” Drake mentioned in a Monday information convention.
Shooter had maps of the varsity
Police mentioned the taking pictures was focused, carefully deliberate and outlined in paperwork from the shooter.
Hale left writings pertaining to the taking pictures and had scouted a second attainable assault location in Nashville, “however due to a menace evaluation by the suspect — there’s an excessive amount of safety — determined to not,” Drake mentioned on Monday.
The shooter left behind “drawn out” maps of the varsity detailing “how this was all going to happen,” he added.
The writings revealed the assault on the Christian faculty “was calculated and deliberate,” police mentioned. The shooter was “somebody that had a number of rounds of ammunition, ready for confrontation with legislation enforcement, ready to do extra hurt than was truly accomplished,” Drake mentioned.
Three weapons — an AR-15, a Kel-Tec SUB 2000, and a handgun — had been discovered on the faculty, he mentioned. A search warrant executed at Hale’s residence led to the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and different proof, in line with police.
“They discovered numerous paperwork. This was clearly deliberate,” Mayor Cooper mentioned. “There was numerous ammunition. There have been weapons.”
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 informed CNN when requested to make clear.
Hale graduated from Nossi School of Artwork & Design in Nashville final yr, 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.
A timeline of the taking pictures and response
Data from police and from the shooter’s childhood good friend helped illuminate a timeline of the lethal assault.
Simply earlier than 10 a.m. Monday, the shooter despatched an ominous message to a childhood good friend, the good friend informed CNN on Tuesday. In an Instagram message to Averianna Patton, a Nashville radio host, simply earlier than 10 a.m. Monday, the shooter mentioned “I’m planning to die at this time” and that it will be on the information.
“Sooner or later this can make extra sense,” Hale wrote. “I’ve left greater than sufficient proof behind. However one thing dangerous is about to occur.”
Patton informed CNN’s Don Lemon she was the shooter’s childhood basketball teammate and “knew her properly once we had been children” however hadn’t spoken in years and is uncertain why she obtained the message. Disturbed by its content material, she referred to as a suicide prevention line and the Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Workplace at 10:13 a.m.
At that very minute, police in Nashville additionally obtained a 911 name of an energetic shooter inside the varsity and rushed there.
Armed with three firearms, the shooter obtained into the varsity by firing via glass doorways and climbing via to get inside, surveillance video launched by Metro Nashville Police reveals. Pointing an assault-style weapon, the shooter walked via the varsity’s hallways, the video reveals.
As the primary 5 officers arrived, they heard gunfire from the second flooring. The shooter was “firing via a window at arriving police vehicles,” police mentioned within the information launch.
Police went upstairs, the place two officers opened fireplace, killing the shooter at 10:27 a.m., Aaron, the police spokesperson, mentioned.
After the shooter was useless, youngsters had been evacuated from the varsity and brought in buses to be reunited with their households. They held fingers and walked in a line out of the varsity, the place group members embraced, video confirmed.
“This faculty ready for this with energetic shooter coaching for a purpose,” Nashville Metropolitan Councilman Russ Pulley informed CNN. “We don’t wish to suppose that that is ever going to occur to us. However expertise has taught us that we must be ready as a result of on this day and time it's the actuality of the place we're.”
Patton, in the meantime, had “referred to as Nashville’s non-emergency line at 10:14 a.m. and was on maintain for practically seven minutes earlier than talking with somebody who mentioned that they'd ship an officer to my residence,” she informed CNN affiliate WTVF. An officer didn't come to her residence till about 3:30 p.m., she mentioned.
Three youngsters and three adults had been killed
Two Covenant College workers are among the many victims of Monday’s mass taking pictures, in line with the varsity.
Katherine Koonce was recognized as the top of the varsity, its web site says. She attended Vanderbilt College and Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville and obtained her grasp’s diploma from Georgia State College.
Sissy Goff, certainly one of Koonce’s associates, went to the reunification middle after the taking pictures and suspected one thing was improper when she didn’t see Koonce there.
“Understanding her, she’s so sort and robust and such a voice of purpose and simply safety for those who she would have been there in entrance dealing with every thing, so I had a sense,” Goff mentioned.
She mentioned Koonce was a relaxing affect and even obtained a canine named “Covie” who greeted college students earlier than and after faculty.
“Dad and mom are so anxious, children are so anxious, and Katherine had such a centering voice for individuals,” Goff mentioned.
Mike Hill was recognized within the workers part of the Covenant Presbyterian Church’s web site as services/kitchen workers. Hill, 61, was a custodian on the faculty, per police. A good friend confirmed his picture to CNN.
Hill was the daddy of seven youngsters and had 14 grandchildren, his household mentioned in an announcement obtained by CNN affiliate WSMV. He beloved to cook dinner and spend time together with his household, it added.
“We wish to thank the Nashville group for all of the continued ideas and prayers. As we grieve and attempt to grasp any sense of understanding of why this occurred, we proceed to ask for help,” the assertion mentioned.
His daughter, Brittany Hill, mentioned in a Fb put up on Monday that her dad “completely beloved” his job.
“I've watched faculty shootings occur over time and by no means thought I'd lose a beloved one over an individual making an attempt to unravel a short lived drawback with a everlasting answer,” she mentioned. “I'm so sorry for the lack of these youngsters,” she added.
Cynthia Peak, 61, was believed to be a substitute trainer, police mentioned Monday.
The household of Evelyn Dieckhaus, one of many 9-year-old victims, offered an announcement to CNN affiliate KMOV.
“Our hearts are fully damaged. We can't imagine this has occurred. Evelyn was a shining gentle on this world. We recognize all of the love and help however ask for area as we grieve,” the household mentioned.
The Covenant College issued an announcement Monday night time grieving the taking pictures.
“Our group is heartbroken. We're grieving large loss and are in shock popping out of the phobia that shattered our college and church. We're targeted on loving our college students, our households, our school and workers and starting the method of therapeutic,” the varsity mentioned in an announcement.
“Legislation enforcement is conducting its investigation, and whereas we perceive there may be numerous curiosity and there shall be numerous dialogue about and hypothesis surrounding what occurred, we'll proceed to prioritize the well-being of our group.
“We recognize the outpouring of help we now have obtained, and we're tremendously grateful to the primary responders who acted shortly to guard our college students, school and workers. We ask for privateness as our group grapples with this horrible tragedy — for our college students, dad and mom, school and workers,” the assertion mentioned.
Gun violence is the main reason behind dying for youngsters
Firearms had been the main reason behind dying amongst youngsters and adolescents in 2021, for the second yr in a row, in line with a CNN evaluation of knowledge from the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Firearms first surpassed motorcar crashes because the main reason behind dying for youngsters and adolescents in 2020, after a pointy improve within the first yr of the pandemic. Deaths from each firearms and motorcar crashes elevated once more in 2021, CDC information reveals.
Cooper, the Nashville mayor, mentioned he's “overwhelmed on the considered the lack of these households, of the longer term misplaced by these youngsters and their households.”
“The main trigger of youngsters’ dying now's weapons and gunfire and that's unacceptable,” Cooper mentioned.
Within the wake of the assault, President Joe Biden referred to as on Congress to behave on gun management measures, however Republicans legislators confirmed little willingness to handle the difficulty.
“We owe these households greater than our prayers. We owe them motion,” Biden mentioned.
“Folks say, why do I preserve saying this if it’s not occurring?” he continued. “As a result of I would like you to know who isn’t doing it. Who isn’t serving to. To place stress on them.”
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