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The shooter who attacked students and teachers at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday was identified by police as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who law enforcement said may have once attended the school.Police have given unclear information on Hale's gender. For hours Monday, police identified the shooter as a woman. At a late afternoon press conference, the police chief said Hale was transgender. After the news conference, police spokesperson Don Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale identified.
Destanee Thomas, a friend of Hale's, told ABC News Hale had announced the transition to Aiden and began using male pronouns relatively recently.A post on the school's Facebook that has since been removed indicated that Hale earned at least one award for strong academic performance.
"Aside from art, I enjoy binging on video games, watching movies, and playing sports," Hale wrote on a personal website. "There is a child-like part about me that loves to go run to the playground. Animals are my second passion, so I also enjoy spending time with my two cats."
Hale's LinkedIn account also lists work as a part-time grocery shopper with the food delivery service Shipt and mentions past employment as a cat sitter.
Founded in 2001, the Covenant School is a private Presbyterian school in Nashville with some 200 students in pre-K through sixth grade, according to the school's website.The parents of the shooter, Audrey Hale, spoke to police and said they knew Hale had bought and sold one weapon and believed that was the extent of it. However, Hale had purchased seven firearms from five different local gun stores and hid them at home, Drake said.
"The parents felt (Hale) should not own weapons," the chief said.
Three of the weapons were used in the attack. Police also said Tuesday they did not know a motive. The shooter targeted the school and church in the attack but did not specifically target any of the six people killed, police spokesman Don Aaron said.
The news conference came a day after Hale, a former student at the Covenant School, stormed into the school and killed six people before being fatally shot by responding police officers.
The attack was the 19th shooting at an American school or university in 2023 in which at least one person was wounded, according to a news blogging tally, and the deadliest since the May attack in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 dead. There have been 42 K-12 school shootings since Uvalde.Armed with three firearms, the shooter got into the school by firing through glass doors and climbing through to get inside, surveillance video released by Metro Nashville Police shows. Pointing an assault-style weapon, the shooter walked through the school's hallways, the video shows.
As the first five officers arrived, they heard gunfire from the second floor. The shooter was "firing through a window at arriving police cars," police said in the news release
