Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the trans woman who carried out Monday's massacre at The Covenant School, a Christian elementary school in Nashville, was an alumna of the school and planned in great detail, the massacre that killed three children and three adults. The alleged perpetrator of the assault, as reported by the police, used the pronoun "he/him" and allegedly acted out of "resentment" against the school.
As explained by Metropolitan Nashville Police (MNPD) Chief, John Drake, the 28-year-old woman had drawn a detailed map of the school, including possible entry points, and had staked out the building extensively before carrying out the massacre. "We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we're going through," Drake noted before also adding that the shooter was primed and ready to do more damage than she did.
🚨BREAKING: Nashville Police release bodycam footage showing officers neutralizing trans shooter of Christian school pic.twitter.com/XUIhSceGiq
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 28, 2023
The victims are three children, the school principal, a substitute teacher and a janitor. The deceased have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, all nine years old; Mike Hill, 61; Cynthia Peak, 61; and Katherine Koonce, 60.
Police release video of school shooting
A police spokesman, Don Aaron, explained that the shooter was armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun and stressed that police action was swift. About 14 minutes elapsed from the time the trans woman broke into the school until she was shot by officers. She is the seventh fatality in the shooting. Nashville Metro Police released a video with the entire sequence of events and images of the weapons seized from the shooter.
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
The video shows how 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 pistols, two of them assault-style, and shot her way into the school through the doors on the side of the building.
The first call to 911 about gunshots in the building came in at 10:13 a.m. Officers rushed to the campus, entered and began to clear the building. A team of agents encountered Hale shooting on the second floor in a common area. She had previously been shooting through a window at arriving police cars. Two members of the team of agents that responded to the call, shot and fatally wounded Hale.
Those two officers are Officer Rex Englebert, a four-year veteran of the MNPD, and Officer Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran of the MNPD. Both prevented further carnage.
According to police, Hale's recovered writings revealed that the attack was "calculated and planned." A search warrant executed at the assailant's home resulted in the seizure of two additional shotguns and several additional pieces of evidence.
Biden uses massacre to call for more gun control
President Joe Biden on Monday again called for a national ban on assault weapons in the immediate aftermath of the Nashville shooting.
"It’s about time that we begin to make some more progress," Biden said. "We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping at the very soul of this nation."
I call on Congress again to pass my assault weapons ban.
It's about time we make some more progress. pic.twitter.com/ZE584cUN6R
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 27, 2023
