Six people were killed — including three children — when a 28-year-old transgender woman opened fire inside a private elementary school inside a Nashville Church Monday morning.
The incident happened at ‘The Covenant School,’ a Christian school located at 33 Burton Hills Blvd.
Responding officers engaged the shooter, identified as Audrey Hale, on the second floor of the building and she was fatally shot by police.
BREAKING: Video shows Audrey Hale methodically targeting Christian school in Nashville https://t.co/zUAX9VqwRg pic.twitter.com/FNmmypOGlZ
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 28, 2023
“The police department response was swift,” Metro Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron said at a news conference. “They heard shots coming from the second level. They immediately went to the gunfire. When the officers got to the second level, they saw a shooter, a female, who was firing. The officers engaged her. She was fatally shot by responding police officers.”
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a news conference that Hale is believed to have attended the school years ago. Although, a possible motive is unknown.
Drake said investigators have found a manifesto and a detailed map in regards to Hale’s plot to commit the massacre. He also said Hale shot through a door to gain entry.
The victims have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9 Hallie Scruggs, 9, William Kinney, 9, Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
As officers responded to the Covenant campus, Hale fired on arriving police vehicles from a 2nd story window. pic.twitter.com/7JiLdCHhF1
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) March 28, 2023
NEW PHOTO: The car Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale parked at the Church before carrying out massacre; cops say they recovered 'written material' from the vehicle https://t.co/zUAX9VqwRg pic.twitter.com/Y6WfkTvhjc
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 28, 2023
BREAKING PHOTOS: Firearms used by Nashville school shooter https://t.co/zUAX9VqwRg pic.twitter.com/Mc18kAJrpM
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 28, 2023
WATCH: @TBInvestigation Director: "Now I know there will be people who want to criticize us for prayers, but that’s the way we do that in the South, right? We believe in prayer & we believe in the power of prayer, & so our prayers go out to these families." pic.twitter.com/0O7G6sCuBB
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 27, 2023
REPORTER: "Is there any reason to believe that how she identifies has any motive for targeting the [Christian] school?"
CHIEF DRAKE: "There is some theory to that…"
REPORTER: " Was this a targeted attack?"
CHIEF DRAKE: "It was."https://t.co/zUAX9VqwRg pic.twitter.com/qO5YXT09OZ
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 27, 2023
The Covenant School is located inside a Presbyterian Church and serves preschool through 6th grade.
Press release from MNPD: Chief John Drake and the men and women of the MNPD join all of Nashville in mourning today’s deaths of six innocent persons, three nine-year-old’s and three adults, at the hands of an active shooter at Covenant Church/School on Burton Hills Drive.
The deceased are identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, all age nine, Mike Hill, age 61, Cynthia Peak, age 61, and Katherine Koonce, ago 60.
The shooter, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, who attended the school years ago, arrived on campus in her Honda Fit. She was heavily armed with three guns, two of them assault-type weapons, and, as seen in surveillance video, shot her way into the church/school through doors on the side of the building.
The first call to 911 about shots being fired in the building came in at 10:13 a.m. Officers rushed to the campus, made entry and began clearing the building. Shots were heard coming from the second level. It was on the second floor, in a common area, that a team of officers encountered Hale shooting (she had been firing through a window at arriving police cars). Two members of an officer team fired on Hale and fatally wounded her. Those two officers are Officer Rex Englebert, a four-year MNPD veteran, and Officer Michael Collazo, a nine-year MNPD veteran.
Writings recovered from Hale revealed that her attack was calculated and planned.
A search warrant executed at Hale’s Brightwood Avenue home resulted in the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun, and other evidence.
The investigation by several MNPD components, with assistance from our partners at the TBI, FBI, ATF and THP, is continuing.
