HORRIFIC: 3 Students, 3 Adults, And Female Shooter Dead After School Shooting At Christian PreK-6 School (UPDATED)
On Monday morning, a female shooter entered Covenant Presbyterian School in Nashville and killed 3 students and 3 adults. Covenant is a Pre-K through Sixth Grade school.
Metro-Nashville police report that they engaged with the shooter on the second floor. She was shot dead by police just minutes after police arrived on the scene. Reports indicate that the shooter was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
🚨#BREAKING: Active shooter event taking place with multiple casualties reported inside at the Covenant School ⁰⁰📌#Nashville | #Tennessee
Currently numerous law enforcement and other agencies are responding to a mass casualty event with multiple children shot inside the… pic.twitter.com/aXwnVLt735
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) March 27, 2023
Initial reports suggested that the shooter was a teenager, but she had not been identified.
BREAKING: Nashville police say that the school shooter was a female in her teens with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
Three students and three faculty members are dead along with the shooter. pic.twitter.com/8vugWacPxg
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 27, 2023
Police say the shooter – who has not yet been named – killed three kids and three adults before being shot dead by police. Her identity has not yet been confirmed, but police say they believe she was a teenager.
‘We do not know who she is. She does appear to be in her teens,’ Don Aarons, the spokesman for Nashville Metropolitan Police said at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
Shortly before 10.13am, the shooter entered the school through a side door and began opening fire on the second floor.
Police arrived at the scene and heard the gunshots coming from the 2nd floor. By 10,.27am, she had been shot dead. She was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
Source: Daily Mail
UPDATE: 3 students & 3 adult staff members from Covenant School were fatally shot by the active shooter, who has now been identified as a 28-year-old Nashville woman.
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) March 27, 2023
The Nashville NBC affiliate, WSMV 4, reported that the shooter was a “28-year-old Nashville woman” and not a teen at all. She had entered the school through a side entrance with two assault-style rifles and a handgun police said.
Students are still being reunited with their parents at this time.
The Covenant is located at 33 Burton Hills Boulevard, and Hillsboro Pike is closed from Harding Place to Hobbs Road for police at the scene.
A student reunification area has been set up by the Nashville Fire Department at Woodmont Baptist Church, at 2100 Woodmont Boulevard. NFD recommends that parents use this area to meet their students from the school.
Source: WSMV 4
Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee tweeted that he is being updated on the situation and called for prayer for the school and the community in Nashville.
I am closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant, & the @TNDeptofSafety & @TNHighwayPatrol are assisting local law enforcement & first responders at the scene.
As we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.
— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) March 27, 2023
An anti-gun activist hijacked the presser and made a whole lot of assumptions about how the shooter obtained these weapons.
The lady who hijacked the presser then went on CNN and said she was vacationing in the area when she decided to go to the sight of the shooting. She also decided to make assumptions about whether the gun was purchased legally or safely locked up. pic.twitter.com/HYTOmZU5fZ
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 27, 2023
This is a developing story.
***UPDATE***
The victims of the shooting have been identified as:
Evelyn Dieckhaus, age 9
Hallie Scruggs, age 9
William Kinney, age 9
Mike Hill, 61, a custodian
Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher
Katherine Koonce, 60, head of the school
The shooter has also been identified. Audrey Hale, 28, was a former student of Covenant and identifies as transgender. Although the reports are identifying Hale as a “transgender woman”, it appears that she was actually a woman who identified as a man and may have gone by the name “Aiden.”
Nashville police chief John Drake said that the investigation is still ongoing, but investigators have found writings related to the day of the shooting and a detailed manifesto mapping out the shooting at Covenant. Drake added that Hale’s transgender identity likely played a role in the shooting and that it was a targeted attack.
[Drake] added that Hale was “prepared to do more harm than was actually done.”
Drake said police are looking into whether Hale’s identity as a trans person played a role in the deadly shooting, with investigators coming up with theories based on their findings.Police said they are in contact with the suspect’s father and will release video about the shooting in the coming days.
Hale was notably an alumnus of the small private school, which teaches students in pre-K through 6th grade and only has about 200 students enrolled, according to its website.
Source: New York Post
VIDEO: Nashville police chief confirms Audrey Hale identifies as transgender, suggests her trans identify motivated the killings: "We have a manifesto … and a map of how all of this was going to play out." pic.twitter.com/Mss0FPqnUn
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 27, 2023
Nashville police chief confirms Audrey Hale identifies as transgender, suggests her trans identify played a role: "We have a manifesto … and a map of how all of this was going to play out." pic.twitter.com/75KL1yXCCq
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 27, 2023
Internet sleuths were quick to scour the web for Hale’s digital footprint, and seem to have stumbled on the same person.
*Unconfirmed* reports identify the Nashville shooter as “Audrey Hale”, a biological female that identifies as “He/Him” on their LinkedIn
Authorities believe the transgender shooter previously attended the Christian school
Instagram account “creative.aiden” has been deleted pic.twitter.com/ybdQVQsZ6H
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) March 27, 2023
Audrey Hale quoted on art website saying “there is a child like part about me that loves to go run to the playground” pic.twitter.com/jJfE3W3bso
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) March 27, 2023
To those claiming the “he/him” pronouns were photoshopped into Audrey Hale’s LinkedIn, here is a screen recording disproving that pic.twitter.com/4rXm05ys20
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) March 27, 2023
NBC has confirmed the shooter’s identity
Audrey Hale, a former studenthttps://t.co/AFWFmJUJpx
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) March 27, 2023
This seems to be confirmed by independent journalist Andy Ngo.
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1640458823121944579?s=20
Nossi College of Art & Design, formerly attended by the #trans mass shooter of a Christian school in Nashville, has locked down its Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/zahjvujfa8
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) March 27, 2023
Confirmation of connections in case they get scrubbed. LinkedIn with relevant links, Redbubble with self portrait from portfolio website pic.twitter.com/xibAvVIO0X
— 𝓓𝖗. 𝓥𝖔𝐱 𝓞𝖈𝖚𝖑𝖎 (@Vox_Oculi) March 27, 2023
While these are unconfirmed reports, a photo of Hale at a table promoting her work was included in the New York Post report.
Some rumors on social media indicate that the shooter may have been motivated by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s ban on the medical transition of children earlier this month, but that has not yet been confirmed.
Sources:
Smithson, Daniel; and Garcia, Tony. “3 students, 3 adults, shooter dead after Nashville school shooting, police say.” WSMV 4. March 27, 2023. https://www.wsmv.com/2023/03/27/3-students-3-adults-shooter-dead-after-nashville-school-shooting-police-say/
Smith, Jen; and Serna, Vanessa. “Six killed in Nashville private school shooting: Female ‘teen’ shooter kills three kids and two staff members before being shot by police at Christian elementary school.” Daily Mail. March 27, 2023. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11907711/Multiple-injured-private-Nashville-Christian-school.html
Reyes, Ronnie. “Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale identified as transgender and had detailed manifesto to attack Christian academy.” New York Post. March 27, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/nashville-school-shooter-audrey-hale-identified-as-transgender-and-had-detailed-manifesto-to-attack-christian-academy/