A 28-year-old suspect opened fire at a private Christian grade school in Nashville on Monday, killing three children and three adults before being fatally shot by police, officials say.
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7 dead, including shooter and 3 children, at Nashville Christian school: Here's everything we know
Police said the suspect was a 28-year-old who identified as transgender a woman and was once a student at the private school.
Dylan Stableford and
Caitlin Dickson
Mon, March 27, 2023 at 3:00 PM CDT
A 28-year-old suspect who police say identified as a transgender woman
opened fire at a private Christian grade school in Nashville on Monday, killing three 9-year-old children and three adults before being killed by responding officers, officials say.
The slain children
were identified by police as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged 9. The adults were Cynthia Peak, a 61-year-old substitute teacher; Mike Hill, a 61-year-old custodian; and 60-year-old Katherine Koonce.
Police identified the shooter as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who was from the Nashville area and was once a student at the school.
Here’s everything we know.
How it unfolded
Children are evacuated after a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville on Monday. (Jonathan Mattise/AP)
The shooting at the Covenant School began shortly after 10 a.m., when police responded to a call about an active shooter at the school for preschool through sixth grade students.
The shooter, armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun, entered the school through a side entrance and “traversed her way from the first floor to the second floor firing multiple shots,” Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron told reporters.
Five responding officers arrived on the scene within 14 minutes of the first 911 call, Aaron said. Two of the officers entered the building, followed the sounds of gunfire and engaged the suspect on the second floor in a lobby area. They fatally shot her.
Three children and three adults were killed in the shooting. The slain children
were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged 9. The adults were Cynthia Peak, a 61-year-old substitute teacher; Mike Hill, a 61-year-old custodian; and 60-year-old Katherine Koonce.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said police uncovered detailed maps of the school in a search of Hale's home.
A police officer suffered minor injuries from broken glass. No one else was injured. The rest of the approximately 200 students and 50 staff members were evacuated. And students were taken to a nearby church for family reunification.
America’s latest mass shooting
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the daily press briefing on Monday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
According to
the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot excluding the shooter, there have been 129 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, up from about 100 at this point last year.
Three have occurred at schools, including
the deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University on Feb. 13.
At a previously scheduled event in Washington, D.C., on Monday afternoon, President Biden bemoaned the country’s latest mass shooting.
“It’s sick,” Biden said at a women’s business summit at the White House. “It’s heartbreaking — a family’s worst nightmare.”
Biden reiterated his call to Congress for
an assault weapons ban.
“We have to do more to stop gun violence,” the president said. “It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping at the very soul of our nation. And we have to do more to protect our schools.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also addressed the tragedy at the daily press briefing.
“So we’re seeing the heartbreaking news of another shooting of innocent schoolchildren, this time in Nashville,” Jean-Pierre said. “While we don’t know yet all the details in this latest tragic shooting, we know that too often our schools and our communities are being devastated by gun violence.”
“Schools should be safe spaces for our kids to grow and learn and for our educators to teach,” Jean-Pierre said.
At an event earlier in the day, first lady Jill Biden, an educator herself, informed attendees about the shooting.
“I am truly without words,” Jill Biden said. “And our children deserve better.”
‘Aren’t you guys tired of this?’
Children being evacuated from the scene of the school shooting in Nashville on Monday. (Seth Herald/Getty Images)
Following a news conference with police in Nashville, a woman and gun control activist who said she survived the shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., last year gave an impassioned plea to reporters.
“Aren't you guys tired of being here and having to cover all of these mass shootings?” Ashbey Beasley said,
according to USA Today. “I’m from Highland Park, Ill. My son and I survived a mass shooting over the summer. I am in Tennessee on a family vacation, with my son, visiting my sister-in-law.”
Beasley said she has been lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C., since the Highland Park massacre.
“How is this still happening? How are our children still dying and why are we failing them?” Beasley added. “You're not sick of it? We have to do something."
Female mass shooters are extremely rare
Police respond to a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday. (Metro Nashville Police Departmentvia AP)
While mass shootings have become an increasingly common occurrence in the United States, the perpetrators of such attacks are rarely female.
According to the
the Violence Project, a nonpartisan group that studies U.S. mass shooting data, 98% of mass shootings in the U.S. since 1966 have been committed by men. There are a variety of theories on why women make up such a small subset of mass shooters in the U.S.
“Men just are generally more violent,” Jillian Peterson, a forensic psychologist and president of the Violence Project, told
NPR in 2021. Peterson noted that mass shooters are also disproportionately white, and they often “study the perpetrators that came before them.”
Other research suggests that women aren’t necessarily nonviolent, but they are much less likely than men to engage in gun violence targeting strangers in a public setting.
Studies have found that female violence is typically more individualized and private, it often involves relationship disputes and takes place in the perpetrator’s own home.
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https://scallywagandvagabond.com/20...28-id-as-covenant-nashville-shooting-suspect/
Transgender, 28, who id as he/him id as Nashville shooting suspect
Christopher Koulouris: About author bio at bottom of article.
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March 27, 2023
Audrey Hale Nashville transgender who id as he/him id as Covenant school shooting suspect..
Audrey Hale Nashville transgender who identified as he/him (biologically born female) identified as Covenant school shooting suspect that killed 3 children, 3 adults before being shot dead by police.
Tennessee authorities have identified the individual who
stormed a private Christian elementary school in Nashville on Monday, killing three students and three staffers, as 28-year-old white transgender male,
Audrey Hale, a former student who
once attended the school.
The suspect — who was biologically born a female and going by the name of
‘Aiden’ was killed by police — was a
Nashville resident.
Of note, women make up just 2% of
mass shooters across the U.S, according to the
Violence Project database, with Monday’s shooter, just the fifth female mass shooter in US history.
A car was located near the Covenant School, where the 14-minute shooting spree took place Monday morning, and provided investigators clues as to the shooter’s identity,
Metro Nashville Chief of Police John Drake said at a press conference.
‘But as stated, that investigation is still ongoing,’ he added.
Hale fired a number of rounds inside the Covenant Church/School building. She was armed with these 3 guns and significant ammunition.
pic.twitter.com/3LYOU2r0sh
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville)
March 28, 2023
Id as he/him on Linkdln
Hale who identified as
he/him on social media was killed by responding officers when they found her on the second floor of the school. The trans woman at the time was wielding two assault-style rifles and a pistol before being taken out by police.
Police said it appears Hale had previously been a student at the school but it wasn’t immediately clear when or for how long. Reports told of Hale being a biological female who
identified as He/Him and as an illustrator on their LinkedIn. Audrey also went by the name of
Aiden Hale.
They’re also investigating how the
transgender got access to the school, which had protocol for an active shooter.
‘There was a door that was entered. All doors were locked, to our understanding, and how exactly she got in, at this point, is still under investigation,’ Drake said.
Police said they received the initial call about an active shooter at 10:13 a.m. The responding officers quickly began clearing the first story of the school after hearing gunshots coming from the second floor.
The shooter was shot by cops at 10:27 a.m., officials said.
Police said the
‘lone zealot’ was armed with two assault-type rifles, a pistol and a handgun.
Audrey Hale Nashville transgender who id as he/him id as Covenant school shooting suspect.. Also went by the name of Aiden Hale.
Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, drove this Honda Fit to the Covenant Church/school campus this morning and parked. MNPD detectives searched it and found additional material written by Hale.
pic.twitter.com/ftGX74ecKr
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville)
March 28, 2023
Manifesto recovered, identities of six victims given
Officers have recovered a manifesto and maps of the building relating to
‘how this was going to take place’, said police.
According to Chief Drake, multiple phone numbers listed for Hale’s mother and brother met with no answers.
In the aftermath of the shooting, investigators were combing through Hale’s home, Chief Drake said.
Police tactical units were spotted using a grenade-like device to get inside the house, which is listed as Hale’s residence.
The six victims
have been named as
Evelyn Dieckhaus,
Hallie Scruggs, and
William Kinney, all aged nine, along with 60-year-old
Katherine Koonce and 61-year-olds
Cynthia Peak and
Mike Hill.
The Covenant School is a Presbyterian school for about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade. The school has roughly 50 staff members.
Mother of alleged shooter has a documented history of being an anti-gun activist:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/nashville-school-shooters-mum-anti-29565471